Old Contrast Match
by weebee
Summary: Ranma Saotome leaves Nerima, not on the best of terms with anyone. He ends up in Minato ward, where he meets a motorcycle racer. Discontinued.
1. Prologue

Contrast match By Weebee.

Summary. Ranma Saotome leaves Nerima, not on the best of terms with anyone. He ends up in Minato ward, where he meets a motorcycle racer…

WARNING: This will be an R/SM Xover… I'm sorry. Shoot me now. I just had to do it.

Ah, this poor, battered, beaten fic… To tell the truth, along with 'Character Reconstruction' and 'All Purpose Uncultured Cat Person Ranma Saotome,' this was one of my favorite fics. I let it go to Kazuma20 a year ago, thinking that I couldn't bring myself to write a fuku fic. You're now wondering, wait a sec, why's Weebee got this back again? Simple answer. It turns out that I can write a fukufic. I have had this one rolling around in the back of my head for months, and when I realized it, I smacked myself in the head and said, "Weebee you idiot!" After that, I promptly sent a PM to Kazuma20, asking for the fic back. He said sure, especially since he seemed to be having very little luck in his attempts for continuation, and here it is once again, back in my fic list.

What this all comes down to is that I have gone over this thing with a fine toothed comb, in order to ferret out any and all grammatical errors that may have existed, including the dreaded MEAT error. If this isn't perfect now, it will never be. This is a revision of my original copy of the text files, not Kazuma20's, so I'm afraid his meager, yet sometimes beneficial, changes are not included.

After reading this monstrosity of an author's note, may you find the fic itself a lot more enjoyable.

Prologue.

This fic begins, as many others do, with Ranma Saotome sitting on the roof of the Tendo training hall. Unlike those many other fics, it was currently bright daylight, rather than the star filled night sky that usually greeted his gaze. Looking over the side of the house, Ranma frowned sourly at the destroyed husk of the Tendo family Dojo, holes blasted in its walls and roof and battle damage marking the ground around it.

He had to do something. He had let things slide, since it gave him great fights and kept people around him for him to hang out with, but it was hurting too many people. An image of Akane, almost getting hit by Ukyo's Okonomiyaki bombs and Shampoo's exploding pork buns flashed into his head. Ranma had to Leave Nerima… and take all of his baggage with him. As he contemplated ways to do this, one came to him. It had all of the subtlety of a mallet strike to the head, however it would be quick, and not very painful. If it worked, he would have no more Fiancées, and he could get on with his life, maybe with Akane, if she could accept him. Sighing, Ranma jumped off of the roof of the Dojo, headed for the Nekohanten.

HR

"Airen come see Shampoo!" The purple haired Amazon said, bouncing out into the centre of the restaurant from the back room. Sure, Ranma had seemed angry with her after the wedding incident yesterday, but she knew that her Airen never held a grudge. That was one of the things she loved about him. Besides, did he really expect her to stand by and let him marry the kitchen destroyer? If he had, he'd probably die of food poisoning within the week!

To Shampoo's surprise, Ranma just brushed past her, giving her an icy glare as he went. It was clear from the way his eyes looked that he had the soul of ice on at full blast but shampoo could still see a small flicker of… something in his eyes. It was almost like a flicker of… anger, and betrayal…

Dismissing it, Shampoo followed Ranma as he headed into the back of the Café, looking for her great grandmother. She had been avoiding the old woman recently, as she had been glaring at her ever since she had come back from her wedding wrecking expedition the day before. Shampoo hadn't quite gotten up the courage to ask why yet, but she figured that she wouldn't like the answer that she would get.

Cologne looked up from stirring a vat of noodles when she heard the door to the back room of the Café open, seeing the form of Ranma in the opening. Sighing, she hopped off of her cane. She had feared that this would happen. "Hello Son in law. What can I do for you?" She asked, noticing his hands clench as soon as she said "Son In law." 'Maybe that was a mistake…' She thought, before waiting to hear what he could say.

"Elder Cologne." Ranma started, surprising both Cologne and her great granddaughter with his formality. "I hereby renounce all Amazon laws. If you try to push them on me, I will declare personal war on the Joketsuzoku. I know that a fight between you and I would probably result in my loss normally, however, since I'm probably not going to have any honour left by the end of the day, I can use the Umisen Ken and Yamasen Ken as well."

Cologne blinked in mixed surprise and shock. She had expected problems from Shampoo's latest stunt, but nothing of this nature. It was clear that Ranma was serious, even if she knew that doing something like that would destroy him. She and her great granddaughter had just found out how far Saotome Ranma could be pushed, and she really didn't want to push back. If the stories Shampoo and Mousse told were true, Ranma had beaten the king of Phoenix Mountain, and she couldn't contest that kind of power. Actually, being compared favourably with a person of that kind was rather flattering. Sighing, She spoke. "I understand. Will you at least ally with us, in order to strengthen our tribe?"

Ranma shook his head. "I'm not going to be here. I'm leaving in a few hours. I'm sorry I have to do this, but it's gotta be done." He said, some of his old emotions and mannerisms slipping past the barrier of the Soul of ice. Turning around, he saw Shampoo, her face streaked with tears. "I'm sorry Shampoo.. but I will never forgive you for what you almost did." Turning away from the young Amazon, Ranma marched out of the Nekohanten, headed for the next stop on his rounds. He knew that he had to do what he was doing quickly, as if he didn't, someone would get the presence of mind to stop him. He couldn't afford that.

HR

After a similar conversation with Ukyo, where Ranma's only words were, "We used to be friends. If you want your damned Honour back, go kill Genma." He returned to the Tendo Dojo, ready to confront the hardest challenge of all. The girl he truly, even if he couldn't admit it, Loved.

Akane Tendo sat in her bedroom, sniffling softly. P-chan was clutched in her arms, snoring contentedly. She couldn't believe what had happened yesterday. She had almost been married to Ranma… and then it was ruined. That Damned Nannichuan Cask, and all of the people who fought for it, the Fiancées busting in and everything else. It was like her worst nightmare. Looking up as she heard a knock on the window, Akane blinked as she saw a head with a pigtail poking down from above it."

Grumbling about stupid bakas who couldn't use the door, Akane walked over and opened the window. Instead of flipping in, Ranma slowly climbed down from the roof, hunkering on the edge of the window ledge.

"What do you want, Ranma?" Akane asked, angrily.

Ranma was glad she was angry. If she had been crying or something to begin with, he probably wouldn't be able to do what he was about to. "I'm leaving, Akane." He said, in a deadpan voice.

"Y… you're what?" Akane asked, her eyes widening.

"I'm leaving. I've caused your family enough trouble. I'm gunna go away from here, maybe hang out in another part of the city... I'm gunna try n' rebuild my life from the train wreck it's become."

Akane's eyes widened further. The way Ranma was talking, he was serious. She could see a look of regret in his eyes, but also the steely determination that came to him when he had to do something very hard. "But… why Ranma?" She finally choked out, her eyes filling with tears that she refused to shed. "Why after that wedding… We almost got married. Why the heck did you go after that stupid cask in the first place?" Now she was getting angry, as she remembered what had happened the day before.

Ranma sighed. "Why did I go after the cask?" He muttered, looking straight at Akane. "'cuz I didn't want ya to marry a freak. A few months ago, ya said somethin that I've never forgotten. Remember when Me 'n Ryoga were huntin that Japanese Nannichuan?"

Akane nodded, wondering where Ranma was going.

"Well, ya said that you were all right with my body bein sick and twisted if my mind wasn't… ya see me as some sorta sick perversion of nature or somethin… I didn't want ya to marry that… and now the last Jusenkyo water's gone, and I ain't gunna get cured."

Akane reeled back as if she had been struck. There was no way Ranma really thought she was serious, did he? He insulted her all the time, and she insulted back. Why was this one time so important…. Then she remembered the exact scene. She HADN'T been Joking. She had even almost been crying… as much as she didn't like to admit it, at least at that time, she really HAD thought of Ranma as some sort of freak. "Ranma… I don't think you're a freak…" Akane said, quietly.

Ranma shook his head. "Oh yeah? You honestly say that if we got married, and I got locked as a girl, you'd stay with me?"

Akane's mind pondered that for a few minutes. If Ranma was locked as a girl forever, and they got married… then she'd end up in a perverted lesbian relationship with Ranma. Her face curled into disgust. That was all Ranma needed to see.

Hopping down from the window of Akane's room, he yelled back up to her, seeing P-chan in her arms. "Hey Akane. Since breaking all these engagements pretty much shoots my martial artist's Honour to hell, I might as well tell ya this. RYOGA IS P-CHAN!"

Akane blinked for a moment, and then the words were processed. She looked down to see P-Chan in her arms, his face as white as a sheet. Slowly, understanding began to dawn on her face and she walked towards her door, headed to the Furo. We will leave this bloody scene to the reader's imagination. Suffice to say, Ryoga now has something that really IS Ranma's fault to yell about.

Meanwhile, out in the yard, Ranma realized that he probably shouldn't have yelled that so loud. As he turned towards the house, Soun, His father and his mother poked their heads from the living room.

Mr. Tendo spoke first. "Son. I'd better not have heard that right…" He said, menacingly.

"Oh. Such an ungrateful son. To disappoint his father so. Now, you won't break the Tendo agreement if you know what's good for you, boy." Guess who said that.

"Son. It's not very manly to refuse all of those women." Nodoka said, fingering her Katana.

Ranma sighed. He was hoping that he would have been able to get away without confronting them all at once. Then again, that felt WAY too much like his father's method of doing things. In a way, he was glad that he had been caught. Ranma turned to Mr. Tendo first, starting to speak. "First off, yes. You did hear me right." He then turned to his father. "Secondly, I don't got nothin to be grateful to you about." He then turned to his mother. A woman who he had hoped would have been his support when he finally found her. But, no. All she did was dangle the damned contract over his head. "And you. If you really wanna carry out that contract, I'll make damned sure there ain't no Saotome Ranma by the end of the night!"

Genma and Soun quailed as Nodoka staggered back in shock. Her son was asking for death rather than being manly with three beautiful women? What was wrong with him. Sighing, She took off her Katana sheath from her back and removed the blade. "I am sorry son…. You leave me no choice."

Ranma turned a betrayed look to his mother. He had honestly expected her to back down, given how nice she had been to "Ranko" and all, but here she was holding a sword. "Fine." Ranma said, his voice choking. "I see that both of my parents are against me… I'm gunna go down to the town hall, and get my name stricken from the Saotome clan roll. There won't be an "Unmanly" Saotome male after that. Feh. As if you could call Genma manly." Saying this, Ranma turned around and stalked out of the Tendo Dojo.

While Genma and Soun walked over to the Shogi board to mourn over Ranma's sudden departure over Sake, Nodoka looked at the front entrance with wide, shocked eyes. Had she just made a horrible mistake?

HR

Later that night, after sneaking back to the Tendo place for his pack, Ranma sat in the woods, in front of a camp fire. He burnt all of his pictures of his family, tears running from his eyes. He had had to do it, he knew, and this was the best way. Shampoo and Ukyo would get over it eventually, and they deserved a little pain for what they had done. Akane… He didn't want to think about Akane… and if he was Ronin, His greedy father couldn't do anything to him, and his honour obsessed "Mother" wouldn't come near him with a ten foot pole. To her, being Ronin was probably as bad as being Burakumin.

As he doused the fire and crawled into his tent, tears continued to come down his face, as if he was Mr. Tendo. He was sure that the pain of what he had done that day would probably never heal, for himself.

Aftermath in Nerima.

After Ranma had left the yard of the Tendo Dojo, Nabiki Tendo slid her window closed, a small expression of regret flitting across her face. She didn't know that what she had done the day before would have led to this. She just wanted to keep her father from forcing her little sister and Ranma into marriage, as well as making a little cash on the side. She had gotten to like Ranma over the months that he had stayed at the Dojo. Not as one of his many romantic interests, of course, but as a friend or annoying little brother…. Or if she was feeling really impish, a little sister.

She wasn't stupid, and knew that Ranma let her sneak in and take pictures of her at night. A martial artist of Ranma's calibre would DEFINITELY either notice the water she used or just dodge it in his sleep, but she got away with taking her photos anyways. This was probably out of some misguided belief that Nabiki used the money she made to help support the Dojo, and she was glad that he cared so much about the family. She balanced the books for the family and did the budgets, however she never spent any money SHE made on the home unless she needed to. Of course, this thought led her back to the fact that the family would need her stash of money in the next few weeks, and it was all thanks to her own actions. She looked out the window at the destroyed Dojo, and then got up off of her bed and walked down the stares.

Walking into the living room, Nabiki saw Genma and her father playing Shogi, as well as a rather unfamiliar sight. Mrs. Saotome was sitting in the corner of the room, cradling her Katana and crying on to it. As Nabiki got closer to the older woman, she heard what she was whispering. "Why did my son do such a thing…"

Nabiki snorted in disgust. "I thought he would have snapped months ago, actually."

Nodoka's head snapped up and she looked at Nabiki. Her eyes looked clear, as if she hadn't been crying at all. That was a very impressive trick. Nabiki would have to learn it some time… not that she cried a lot, of course. "What do you mean by that, Nabiki chan?"

Nabiki just barely resisted the urge to reach out a hand and ask for money. She grimaced as she realized that that was becoming a conditioned reflex. "Well, With the curse, all the girls fighting over him and his father's stupidity, not to mention that both he and the girl he was really in love with were in a case of serious denial… a weaker guy would have snapped long ago. I'm pretty impressed with Saotome's will power."

"It was really that bad for him?" Nodoka asked, curiously.

"Yeah. He was so stressed that he was pulling his hair out some times." Nabiki said, remembering one particularly funny incident where Ranma, quite literally, was pulling her hair out after a date with Kuno. She thought that she shouldn't tell that one to the manliness obsessed Saotome woman.

"But wouldn't all of the lovely women around him make him relax a little?" Nodoka asked, showing her traditional obliviousness.

Nabiki laughed. "Saotome san, no offence but that just made it worse. I know that ancient samurai used to take two or three women as mistresses, but Ranma isn't a Samurai, ancient or otherwise. He had to keep in constant control of himself, or he'd be called every kind of pervert in the book…"

As Nabiki was trying to Re-educate Mrs. Saotome, a task that many greater women had tried, and failed, to do, Kasumi was standing in the kitchen, the plate of food that she had been preparing before Ranma made his announcement still in her hands, a stunned look on her face. She thought of Ranma as the one who never gave up. The one who would always keep fighting no matter what, and he had just Given up in a rather spectacular manner. After Ranma arrived at the Tendo home, Kasumi had started looking to his determination for strength in her own semi-house wife duties, and it had become like a crutch. Without it, She didn't know if she could keep on in the way she had, especially if Mr. Saotome kept eating here.

HR

Up in Akane's room, the youngest Tendo was laying on her bed, crying, and clutching a small stuffed animal. She remembered that Ranma had won it for her during that fair when she was under the full body cat's tongue. Akane remembered that she had felt mortified that the shorter girl had given her a gift in public. She cried into the softness of the stuffed toy, wishing that she could take back her actions or that things could have been different.

HR

Meanwhile, In Cheyenne Mountain, United states, Major Carter pumped the handle on her combat shot gun, Colonel O'neill holding up a small Gou'ould stun pistol next to her. "So this guy just appeared and started destroying the stargate control complex?" O'Neill asked, as the two walked down the corridor.

Carter nodded. "Yeah. He was saying something in Japanese. We got it translated as "Wild Horse, This was caused by you!" Strange, eh?"

O'Neal nodded. "Well, let's get to work."

The two members of SG-1 headed for the elevator to the SGC, Hungry for pork, for some reason.

END.


	2. Chapter 1, Nerima and a new start

Chapter 1, Nerima and a new start.

The sun rose over the small district of Nerima the same way it had done for a very long time now, and nothing was perceptibly different. Somehow though, things just felt… strange. As if a key component of the small suburb of Tokyo had disappeared. In the Tendo Dojo, The youngest daughter couldn't be seen anywhere. The middle daughter, Nabiki, was sitting at the table, drinking a cup of extremely strong coffee while the eldest, Kasumi, was cooking breakfast with somewhat less than normal enthusiasm.

Nodoka Saotome was sitting across from Nabiki, looking rather rumpled, as if she had been up all night, but not really worse for wear. "Where are my husband and your father, Nabiki Chan?" Nodoka asked, looking at the empty places at the table.

"They went to the bar last night, aunty Nodoka. They're probably still sleeping off the hangover." Nabiki said, angrily.

Nodoka's face turned down into a frown as Kasumi walked out of the kitchen, setting two bowls of Miso soup down for the two people at the table, and then serving herself. As Nabiki took a long sip of the soup, she noticed that it didn't quite taste the same as it usually did. It was good, of course, but something seemed missing. Seeing that her sister had spent her time to prepare it, she didn't comment.

Upstairs, Akane Tendo was rolling over restlessly in her bed, but didn't want to face the day. She would rather have just hidden under her blankets for the next week, but she knew that Kasumi would be up to kick her out of bed with her "You can't say no to me" smile plastered to her face.

Grumbling about overly convincing elder sisters, Akane moved her feet over the edge of the bed and dropped them to the floor. Yelping as the cold wood finished waking her up, she staggered to her feet and over to the mirror at her dressing table. She looked horrible. Her eyes were red from crying, and her cheeks were puffy. It was quite obvious that she hadn't gotten any sleep the night before and her hair was a nightmare. She sighed as she started working on her disheveled appearance, desperately trying not to think of why it was that way.

A few rooms away, Genma and Soun, otherwise known as the lazy duo, snored on, oblivious of the turmoil of the house.

HR

A few blocks away, in the restaurant district, a far different scene was going on. Ukyo Kuonji, owner of Ucchan's Okonomiyaki, was sitting in the middle of her restaurant, a bottle of Sake in her hand. She had sent Konatsu out early yesterday, and she was glad of it now, as he wouldn't have to see his employer in her current state. Ukyo clearly remembered the day before, When Ranma had walked in and said five words that ruined her life. "I thought we were friends…" Ukyo laughed, chugging out of her bottle. "That's all I was to you, wasn't it? and then your best friend ruined your wedding." She laughed softly. "Ukyo sugar, you just fubared." Falling back into the chair she was sitting in, Ukyo let her head drift to the backrest and fell asleep. Konatsu would find her like that several hours later, and carry her up to her room.

HR

At the Nekohanten, Shampoo was having a considerably less peaceful reaction. "Shampoo go find husband!" She yelled, glaring at her great grandmother.

Cologne sighed. "No, you will not child." She said, for the fifth time in as many minutes. Her great granddaughter was very obstinate about her wish to find her former husband.

"Why not great grandmother? He Shampoo's right Airen. She take him to China now he dump all other girls. We go back village and… OW!" Shampoo yelled, as Cologne whapped her on the back of the head.

"Listen here, girl. Ever since Ranma made that declaration yesterday he's been dead to you. The only law that applies to someone who says something like that is the kiss of death. That's why no one ever does it. The only problem is that I don't think HALF THE VILLAGE could kill Ranma, so we will leave him alone."

"But…. Great Grandmother…" Shampoo said, having never seen such a violent reaction from her elder.

"Shampoo, that is final!" Cologne yelled, rapping her staff on the ground.

Shampoo walked out of the restaurant's kitchen, rebellious thoughts filling her head.

Cologne sighed. She was beginning to rethink her choice for her successor if Shampoo was this thick headed. Maybe So-pu? She was very level headed… Losing herself in her Musings, Cologne started preparing the Cat Café for opening.

HR

A few miles away, in the mountains around Tokyo, Ranma woke from his sleeping bag, dried tears still present on his cheeks. Moving out of his tent, He began to build a fire for his morning meal while he thought of his options. He desperately tried not to think of the actions that had lead to him having these options, however this wasn't really working.

He should probably stay mostly around Tokyo. Staying on the road and wandering for the rest of his life just didn't seem appealing anymore, since he had stayed at the Tendo Dojo. He knew that since he was a ronin, he would have a hard time in work or school, but since he didn't have someone else to keep a roof over his head and food in his belly he would have to give up on his education, at least for now, and focus on building up a home to live in. His plans set, Ranma finished his meager breakfast and walked out of his camp, dousing the fire on his way past.

HR

Ranma was having a pretty bad day.. He had made his way back into Tokyo after his brief trip out to the mountains, and was now wandering Minato ward. He had tried to find work at four different places, but as soon as he told them that he couldn't give them a last name they had turned him away. Even the one place where she had tried to apply as a waitress turned her away, although it took them a little longer to refuse the cute redhead. Now, he was wandering the streets, trying to find SOMETHING to do in order to make money. He supposed he could enter pit fights, but that was more his old father's thing, and besides, no one in a pit fight would be much of a challenge for him. Sighing, Ranma headed for a part of the city where it was rumoured there was a big construction project that lacked man power. Maybe they would be desperate enough to hire him.

HR

George Carwell was going INSANE! He had been in Japan for three years, after coming over because of an architectural job offer, and things had been going well for him so far. The only problem was, that at the moment, things weren't going so well. The labor market had suddenly taken a rather large leap in wages recently, and he was having serious problems maintaining his worker quota without going over budget. One man had walked off the job just two hours ago, sighting low pay as a reason. He had to get a good replacement, and he had to get one now. As he thought this, leaning back in his office chair in the foreman's office of the construction site, he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in!" George yelled, straightening up in his chair. A young man, wearing a red oriental shirt and black tied pants walked into the room. "What do you want?" George snapped, his stress showing through his voice.

"Well, I was kinda lookin for a job." The boy said, uncertainly.

George sighed in relief. "Fine then. No more than 150,000 Y a month, deal?"

The young man blinked in surprise. "Yeah!" he said, happily.

George blinked in confusion. Most of the guys around here would have wined him up to 250,000 a month, but this boy seemed really happy with 150. "All right then. What's your name?" He asked, reaching for a pencil.

The boy's face fell, as if he was remembering something. None the less, he spoke anyways. "I'm Ranma."

George scribbled down the name and then looked up at the boy. "Last name?" He asked, expectantly.

"I… don't have one." The boy said, his face falling further. "I'm ronin."

George looked confused. He had heard the word "Ronin" before, but he never really got it's significance. Ronin were apparently very dishonourable, but no reason was ever given. He was desperate for workers though, and if this Ronin kid did something illegal he could just call the police. "All right Ranma. That'll be fine."

"Really?" The boy asked, his head coming up and a happy grin on his face. "Hey. Thanks, man. I've been lookin for a job all day."

George smiled as he got a better look at the boy, now that he wasn't hunched over. He was lean, but had a lot of muscle on his body. He might not be very strong by the look of him, but he'd make a good scaffold worker. "All right Ranma. How about you come back for your first day tomorrow, Okay?"

Ranma nodded enthusiastically before walking out of the foreman's trailer, his head held high. He had finally gotten a job, and it paid decently. He wouldn't be living in a very nice apartment, perhaps one room without a kitchen, but he could live off of 150,000 a month.

Heading for the poorer section of town to search for apartments, Ranma left the construction site behind for the time being.

HR

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a figure got off of a motor bike, with a duffel bag slung over it's shoulder. It had been a long drive from the house where the figure had grown up and into the middle of Tokyo, but it didn't care. It had to get out of the situation that it's parents had forced it into, and if that meant running away, it would do that. The figure was pretty good at Motorcycle racing, and could use that to get by. Pulling off the black motorcycle helmet it wore, a short bob of blond hair was revealed, with a rather effeminate face underneath it. Tenoh Haruka headed into Minato ward, looking for a place to stay.

HR

At the time gates, one time guardian was having a very, very bad life. Setsuna's bad life started shortly after the end of the silver millennium, when it was revealed that she wasn't the time guardian of a main stream. When the time gates had started temporarily going out at random intervals, she recognized the signs of another being being the primary time mage of this timeline, and it made her feel rather inferior. What all of this basically amounted to was that Setsuna couldn't shape destiny… at all. Oh, things had gone pretty much as planned so far, but she highly doubted that they would stay that way, especially during the formative stages of what most of her alternates called "Crystal Tokyo." Quite frankly, that future didn't have a chance in hell of forming in this timeline. Why? Well, at least one Senshi's star seed had gone off course, and she hadn't been able to find it yet. Add on to that the fact that she couldn't control the time gates enough to do the time traveling required and you get one seriously FUBAR future… she just hoped that whoever was pulling the strings, he knew what he was doing.

HR

Somewhere, a cat sitting at the edge of a well sneezed violently. "I guess someone's talking about me." Toltiir muttered, continuing to gaze at his favorite pigtailed Television show.

END.


	3. Chapter 2, Just couldn’t leave well enou

Gender pronoun confusion. What kinda Ranma fic would this be without it? Anyways. TO people who don't know who she is and just see the exterior, Haruka will be referred to as "He." In the narrative, She will always be referred to as "She:" however I figured I should warn you.

Chapter 2, Just couldn't leave well enough alone…

Ranma cracked open his eyes, seeing the ceiling of a room, small discolorations all over it. Blinking as he didn't really recognize this particular sealing, Memory slowly filtered into the pigtailed martial artist. He had left Nerima a week ago, and this was the ceiling of his, as predicted, rather small and beaten up apartment. Getting out of his Futon, Ranma quickly rolled it up, stowing it in the closet in the corner of the room. There wasn't much to the place, really. Just a single room with a closet and bathroom, a hot plate plugged into it's single electrical outlet. Putting on a fresh set of clothes, Ranma opened the front door of his new home, heading for the elevator down to the first floor. Since he was concentrating on what he would have to do at work today, he didn't notice the other person as the two ended up on a collision course.

Most of the breath came rocketing out of Ranma's lungs as he slammed into someone, an oblong object that they had been holding slamming into his stomach. Shaking his head clear and climbing to his feet, He noticed the person who he had bumped into for the first time. It looked like a rather Bishonen man with short cut blond hair, wearing a leather jacket. Next to him, part of the frame of what looked like a motorcycle lay on the ground.

"Sorry about that." Ranma said, offering the blonde a hand up. "I was lost in thought."

The other person took Ranma's hand and pulled himself up with it. "It's all right. I wasn't paying attention." He said, in a low soprano that was just on the verge of being feminine.

"Need help with that thing?" Ranma asked, pointing at the bike frame. "It looks like it weighs a ton."

"Thanks." The other man said, and the two hoisted the frame, carrying it to the elevator and heading GosDownstairs. As the elevator headed for the ground floor, Ranma gave the other man an appraising look. He looked like he worked out, but he wasn't really a martial artist. Definitely a street fighter, though. Ranma stopped short of a Chi aura scan, as he only really used that against opponents.

After the two had carried the god awful heavy automotive part out to a garage where a torn down bike was stored, Ranma turned to the other man. "So, I'm Ranma. Who're you?"

"Haruka Tenoh." The other responded, then continued. "I just moved in last week."

"That's weird." Ranma commented, wiping his hands off on his pants to get rid of the stains from the grease on the underside of the frame. "I just moved here too. Well, I gotta get ta work. I'll see ya some time." He said, turning and walking away.

Haruka just shrugged before turning to the torn down bike and beginning to put it back together. She was glad for that guy's assistance, because if she didn't have it, it would have taken a while to get that seat down from her apartment. It had taken an hour to get it up there in the first place.

While working on her racing Bike, Haruka thought of the events of the last week. She had found out that her family's sponsors had dropped her like a hot potato the moment she had left home, and that she would have to start again from scratch in the motocross circuit. That was all right with her, as she had already made a name for herself, but it meant that her funding would be really tight for a while. Hence her living in this run down dump.

She had been planning to come to Tokyo next month anyways, to attend some school called the " Infinity Academy," Until her parents had sprung their little "Surprise" on her. They HAD to know that she would react the way she did, but they had thought that she wouldn't be determined enough to stick to her guns. She didn't care how good this "Saotome" guy was at martial arts, She wasn't getting engaged to him. She wasn't completely repulsed by guys like some lesbians were, but she definitely physically preferred girls, and being forced into an engagement with a guy she'd never met was NOT on her things to do list. Especially if the dowry was a full course dinner.

Dismissing these depressing thoughts, She continued to work on her bike, thinking of the races she was going to dominate in the future. Haruka just LOVED speed…

HR

A few hours later, Ranma was hanging from a rather thin strap, about ten stories from the ground. Most people found this at least slightly nerve wracking, but Ranma just found it kind of fun. Holding up a piece of metal while someone else welded it and bolted it into place, he looked around. There were people all around the sky scraper that he was helping work on, and the foreman, Mr. Carwell, was standing on the ground with a pair of binoculars, watching them work. Ranma actually really liked his current job. He could do some pretty good strength training with the massive metal beams that were used in the framing of the building, Hand screwing the bolts with the Amaguriken was really good speed practice and just hanging in the air, to a practitioner of Saotome anything goes, was really, really cool.

As he heard the bell for break sound, Ranma unhooked his harness, dropping a few feet to a catwalk that was close by, and then jumping down the side of the building. The first time his co-workers had seen this they had panicked, however they were getting used to it by the end of the first week. Touching down on the ground, Ranma walked over to the out door storage area where he had stored his lunch and picked it up. Sitting down to eat it, he didn't notice Mr. Carwell approaching.

"Hey Ranma?" Carwell asked, surprising the younger man.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, looking up from his lunch with a noodle hanging from his mouth. "Wadya want, sir?" he continued, his words becoming clearer as he swallowed the offending foodstuff.

Carwell ignored the rather rude behavior of his employee in favour of talking. "I was wondering if you knew what you were doing after this job was over?" He asked, looking quizzically at the pigtailed martial artist.

"I dunno. Lookin for another job I guess." Ranma said, shrugging.

"How would you like a permanent position with the city?" Carwell said, bluntly.

"Geh?" Ranma asked, all food forgotten. If he could get permanent work, he wouldn't have to worry about trying to find a job again, at least until he got enough money to go back into school and work part time.

"Well, I talked to my friend Ichiro down in city maintenance. He says that he can fit you in at the metro centre down in Juuban after you're done on this job."

"Sure. That'd be great. Thanks boss!" Ranma said, smiling at the older man.

Carwell smiled back, walking off to call his friend. He had noticed Ranma's exceptional performance on the job on the first day that he had started working at the site, and he was very impressed with the boy. He knew that after he was finished this job the young boy would go off somewhere else, and he knew Ichiro was looking for skilled labour, so he called him up. The other man seemed stuck on the fact that the boy was a Ronin, until Carwell had told him what he could do. The foreman smirked. 'I did my good deed of the day.' He thought, walking for his trailer.

HR

Back in Nerima, in the Tendo Living room, Nodoka Saotome couldn't decide whether she was furious or hysterical. She had just finished compiling a list, cobbled together from what she could believe from many different sources, of her son's accomplishments and trials in Nerima. Most of it was from Nabiki, with a little input from Kasumi as well.

Her son had fought half dragons, tentacle monsters and even a phoenix… but he had also participated in martial arts tea ceremony, in a wedding Kimono, Martial arts Rhythmic Gymnastics, in a leotard and had at least one man madly in love with him… even if the same man wanted to kill him.

Nodoka definitely couldn't describe her son as cowardly or a bad fighter, but manly was something she had serious doubts about. Then again, since he had made it perfectly clear that he wasn't going to go through with the Seppuku pledge, did that even really matter anymore?

Nodoka held her head with her hands, feeling a migraine coming on.

"Are you all right Aunty Saotome?" Kasumi asked, having gotten back to something similar to her old cheerfulness recently, even if she was starting to tell people to do random chores for themselves. Nodoka herself didn't mind that much, Nabiki and Akane only gave token resistance, but the two old men were a positive embarrassment.

"I'm fine Kasumi dear… just reconsidering some of my decisions." Nodoka said, looking at the Saotome Honour blade with a mix of respect and hatred, because it was the family honour that had driven her son away in the end.

"Don't worry Aunty." Kasumi said, serenely. "I'm sure that if you apologise to him, Ranma will forgive you. He is a very forgiving person."

Nodoka bridled for a moment at the thought of apologizing to Ranma. He had walked out on her, after all… then she remembered the look on his face when he had left. Pure, undiluted betrayal. She sighed. "I… I'm not ready for that yet, Kasumi Chan. I hope… in time." Nodoka said, sadly.

Kasumi just nodded slightly, moving out of the room and leaving a plate of cookies in her wake.

A few minutes later, Akane Tendo entered the living room, a blue battle aura flickering around her form. Slumping down on the floor next to Nodoka, she reached out to snatch a cookie, and rapidly put it in her mouth.

"Akane Chan?" Nodoka asked, noting the aura coming off of the youngest Tendo. "What's wrong?"

Akane turned on Nodoka, anger in her eyes for a second before she realized who it was. "Oh aunty. It's only you. Those… Those PERVERTS at school have started again. It's only been a week since Ranma… Ranma left and they're starting up the morning fights again. Kuno's there insulting Ranma and saying that he beat him in a fight and that he's going to take "The fierce Akane Tendo" and the "Pigtailed goddess" for his own…" She shuddered. Sometimes, Kuno's little fantasy world gave her the creeps.

Nabiki walked into the room a few minutes later. "Sorry Sis. I tried to keep the information away from Kuno for as long as I could. Gos found out and told him."

Akane looked outraged. "Gosunkugi?" She asked, disbelievingly. Gosunkugi always seemed like a very nice guy, if a bit creepy. He didn't seem the type to do something like that.

"Don't worry. I'm taking steps to have him punished." Nabiki said, a predatory smirk coming across her face. The first time Kuno's little horde had started, she had ignored them, since her sister was getting good practice out of them but given how much damage that had obviously done to her, Nabiki wouldn't let it happen again.

A few minutes later, Kasumi brought lunch in for the three women in the living room and herself, "Forgetting" to call Genma or Soun.

HR

Mousse sighed as he scrubbed the Nekohanten' kitchen floor. He had rejoiced when Ranma had declared himself immune from the Amazon laws, thinking Shampoo would finally notice him, but the girl had just gone into a case of denial. For a few days, Shampoo had stated either that she was going to look for her Airen so that they could go back to China or that he was going to come to her. After that, She had actually left the Nekohanten, on a search for her husband. Since Ranma had said that he was leaving the area, Shampoo had said that her first stop was Kyoto, and then on to other remote cities. Somehow, Mousse doubted that the purple haired girl was going to find anything there.

Recently, Mousse had been finding his Hero Worship of Shampoo sputtering. He had begun to notice that his perpetual rival, Ranma, wasn't really all that interested in the girl he loved and that Shampoo just couldn't see it. Even he wasn't that blind. The duck boy seriously regretted his part in the failed wedding, as it had literally driven away the best sparring partner he had, since Ryoga would never fight him and Kuno was an idiot.

Continuing to clean up the back of the Nekohanten, Mousse considered where he was going to go from where he was. What he came up with wasn't all that pleasing. Shampoo wasn't going to give up on Ranma, that was amazingly clear, and she was Mousse's only real reason for living in Japan. Without that reason, he really should be heading back to China… to the village, where he got even less respect than he did here. Sometimes, he really hated his life.

HR

Ranma smiled as the final bell for the end of his shift rang, and he descended from the side of the building that he was working on. Signing out with the foreman, He grabbed his stuff and started walking home.

He liked Minato ward a lot better than he liked Nerima, at least most of the time. There were a few battle sites and craters around this ward, but it was nothing in comparison to Nerima. You could walk more than two blocks before you encountered a newly patched wall. In fact, even that many repairs seemed strange. There were no crazed martial artists or psychotic women chasing c-cat girls around here, so what caused that damage?

Just as he thought this, Ranma heard a rather loud roar coming from a few streets ahead of him. 'I just had to ask…' He thought, before running for the sound.

Ranma came to a stop as he saw a rather large… thing… throwing small spheres of dark power around, hitting cars and walls, and just barely missing civilians. "What the heck is this?" He asked, looking around. He jumped out of the way just as a bolt of energy came very close to frying him on the spot.

"That's it!" Ranma yelled, cupping his hands in front of his body. Channeling Chi into them, he yelled, "Moko Takabisha!"

To Ranma's surprise, the creature didn't seem to really notice the blast of life force he had shot at it until it collided with it, and then only to turn in the direction that it was fired from with no other ill effects. 'What the heck IS this thing?' Ranma wondered, as the creature began to stalk towards him.

Falling into an anything goes martial arts stance, Ranma sprang out of it into a spinning kick at the monster's face. He felt a rather large stab of pain as his foot connected, all of the Chi that he had used to enhance it seeming to bleed away right before he hit the creature. That was when he noticed it. The creature had no Chi. It had some sort of energy powering it, but it wasn't the same as his. It sure liked to absorb Chi, though. While he was caught in his introspection, Ranma was backhanded by the monster, sending him crashing into a wall and knocking him out cold. Unknown to Ranma, for a brief instant during the battle, a symbol had flashed on his forehead, right between his eyes. It looked kind of like a trident, with the middle tine slightly smaller than the outer two and a cross shaped handle…

END.


	4. Chapter 3, Ranko meets Haruka “The girl

Chapter 3. Ranko meets Haruka. "The girl of my dreams?"

A police captain looked over the wreckage of the latest Senshi VS. Youma battle ground, shaking his head slowly. This was the third fight in the last two weeks, and they were really tearing up the streets. All that was left of the evil demon was a shattered half moon shaped crystal on the ground, but the senshi had sure as hell taken their toll on the local surroundings when they took it out. Then again, this particular captain had been working in Nerima for five months before he had been transferred to the Minato force, and he had seen destruction on this level before.

Turning to a pile of rocks that used to be a partition wall between two houses, the captain was surprised to see the rocks moving. 'Is the damned monster still here?' He thought, quickly looking to see if the shattered crystal was still at the centre of it's crater. Slowly edging towards the pile of rocks, the officer kicked it, causing some of the rocks on the top to fall to the side. After this, a hand shot out of the rubble, followed by a black haired head, that was covered with brick dust. The person in the pile of debris coughed for a moment before noticing the police captain.

"Uh… Hello officer." Ranma said, most of his body still buried under a pile of rocks and his head hurting like a wall had been slammed into it.

The police officer's eyes went wide as he saw who had climbed from the wreckage. It was one of the notorious destroyers of Nerima. A group of people that the force had labeled the Nerima Wrecking Crew. Deciding that if he just ignored the problem it might just go away, the cop turned around and walked off, banishing any thoughts of a pigtailed martial artist buried in a pile of brick dust from his mind.

Ranma grumbled about police officers that acted like jerks as he pulled himself out of the rubble of the destroyed wall, wincing as he put weight on the leg that he had used to kick the Youma. While his legs had received considerably more punishment in the past, they had been reinforced with Chi energy then. A human limb without the boost of Chi simply wasn't meant to hit something as hard as it did, and Ranma was lucky that he didn't break his leg. Actually, he was lucky that he wasn't dead, since the strange monster had drained a LOT of his Chi when it had touched him, and he didn't have enough to harden himself before he hit the wall. Dismissing the mystery of how the heck he was still alive, Ranma began to stagger down the street towards his home, and hopefully a long night's sleep in order to heal.

HR

In the driveway of the apartment building where she lived, Haruka was finishing up the re-assembly of her racing bike. She had had to strip it down for maintenance, a job that took most of the week, and putting it back together always took a long time. Tomorrow, she would go down to the Metro Centre and see if she could register for any Motocross races there. As she pondered her actions in the days to come, Haruka heard a strange thumping sound. Looking up from her work on her bike, she gasped. The man who she had met this morning, who had identified himself as Ranma, was staggering down the street, holding what looked like a wooden board and using it to support himself. Dropping her tools to the ground, Haruka ran out of the driveway, for some reason feeling like she had to help the pigtailed martial artist, and got a better look at him. His red shirt was torn up, with what looked like concrete dust all over it. His pants were in a similar condition, all accept for the right leg, which looked like it had been torn right off.

"Hey. You okay?" Haruka said, as she came into speaking range of the martial artist.

"Oh. I'm fine." Ranma slurred out, before staggering one more step forward and falling on his face.

"Man, what the heck have you been doing, fighting monsters?" Haruka asked, chuckling as she slung the dead weight of the martial artist over her shoulders, walking into the building with him. Haruka was given a few strange looks as she walked to the elevator with the battered body over her shoulder, but she ignored them as she entered and hit the button for the floor where both of them lived.

Setting Ranma up next to his door, Haruka shrugged. "Well, this is about all I can do for you Without calling the doctor or something."

Ranma shook his head slightly, muttering, "I'm all right."

"Whatever you say." Haruka muttered, heading back for the elevator to head downstairs. As Haruka walked away, Ranma wondered why the other person would do that for him. True, he had been really beaten up, but most people in Nerima just ignored a beaten up martial artist… then again, this wasn't Nerima. Forcing himself to his feet, Ranma fumbled around in his pockets for the apartment key. After finding it, he entered the apartment, flopping down on the bed and passing out.

HR

At the time gates, Setsuna was casually surfing through the current events on earth when she caught sight of a Youma attack. Stopping the scenes on the time gates from going any further, she watched the attack, watching some strange man try to fight the Youma, before being knocked out and having the Senshi come and defeat it. Something had caught her eye about the man, however. Rewinding the scene in the gates, Setsuna adjusted the angle on the young martial artist who had tried to stop the monster with life force based attacks. Since, of course, the monster was a Youma and absorbed life energy, this was worse than useless. This wasn't what Setsuna was interested in, however. Zooming in with the time gates on the young man, She caught sight of a flaring symbol on his forehead just as the monster backhanded him into a wall. Setsuna stopped the image on the gates, revealing a frontal view of the boy's face, a glowing symbol of the planet Neptune right between his eyes.

Setsuna groaned, rubbing her forehead. "Great. The re-incarnation of Neptune is a man." She muttered, thinking of the problems this would create. The Silver millennium was a matriarchal Monarchy. The male rulers were less powerful than the females, and the magic of the planets was harnessed in a way that insured this. What this amounted to was that if her suspicions were correct, the Senshi wouldn't have enough fire power to stop one of their major enemies. Using one of the few powers that still worked for her reliably, Setsuna called for the transformation item of Neptune. She raised an eyebrow. It was still a pen. Usually, when the Senshi of a planet became male, the transformation item would shift to something else, in Neptune's case, a small trident shaped pendent. Since the item was still a pen, it must mean that there was a female senshi of Neptune somewhere… but the time gates clearly showed a young man. Pluto was getting a headache.

HR

The next morning, Ranma groaned as the light assaulted his senses. The bruises and cuts all over his body reminded him of their existence with a steady dull ache, and his lower right leg was on fire, but he ignored the pain in order to drag himself out of bed, cooking a small breakfast and heading for the door of his apartment. He had work today, and he thanked the Kami that it was the last work day of the week. As he walked out of the door to his apartment, Ranma caught sight of the blonde bishonen man who lived a few apartments away and who had carried him in to the building last night. "Hey Haruka san. Thanks for the help yesterday." Ranma called, causing Haruka to turn around and notice his presence.

"No problem, Ranma san." Haruka said, pressing the button for the elevator. "But I do want to know what the heck did that to you. Did you get mugged or something?"

Ranma shrugged. "Nah. This really big monster thing showed up and I tried to fight it. I woulda won too, but it eats life energy or something."

Haruka blinked rapidly. She had heard the rumours of the monster attacks around this area, but had chocked them up to being urban legends, like those super powered martial artists in Nerima. Dismissing this thought, Haruka stepped on to the elevator as it arrived, Ranma following closely behind.

At work that day, Ranma wasn't nearly as fast as usual, and he had to take the lift down off of the building like everyone else. This in itself wasn't an oddity, but the way he kept glancing up at the overcast sky like he was in fear for his life drew some strange looks.

HR

Meanwhile, In Nerima, Cologne of the Chinese amazons was beginning to feel like some god somewhere hated her. First the one who she had been cultivating to be a great warrior to add to her tribe had left, leaving no compensation for her. She could see WHY he would do it, but it was frustrating. Second, her great granddaughter had gone off on a fool's quest to find him, and now, a male of the Amazon tribe was asking her to cast him out. "Now Mousse, tell me exactly WHY you want me to do this?" She asked, beginning to get a headache.

"I don't want to go back home, elder." Mousse responded, bluntly. He then sighed, looking down. "I know that Shampoo does not love me, and that I should go back to the village, but Japan is so much better for Males. We are actually treated with respect here, even with disabilities like mine."

Cologne sighed. She knew of the dangers of taking warriors out of the tribe. She KNEW that things like this would happen, but she never thought that Mousse of all people would be one to do this. "What will you do here, child?" She asked, some of the concern for the nearly blind boy that she normally hid showing through.

"I don't know elder. Maybe start another Cat Café somewhere. I do make half of the food here, after all." Mousse said, standing straight and not wavering on his position.

"All right." Cologne said, switching to Chinese for her next sentence. (Mu Tsu of the Chinese Amazon tribe, you are officially cast out, an outsider to the tribe, until you prove yourself worthy for re-entrance.)

(Thank you elder.) Mousse said, bowing and leaving the cat Café to start his life in Japan. Cologne sighed, looking down at her wooden staff. "It's quite all right Young one…" She muttered, before pogoing back into the back room of the cat café. It looked like she was going to be making the trip to China by herself.

HR

Coming home from the construction site that night, Ranma sighed in relief. It had been threatening rain all day, and he didn't have any story ready for if he suddenly disappeared and a girl showed up. He had been lucky, not really having any unexpected run-ins with cold water for his time in Minato. As he thought that, it started to rain. The petite redhead sighed exasperatedly as she headed for a local bar in order to dry off and wait for the storm to at least lighten up. It had gone from a cloudy, yet calm sky to raining buckets, as it always did when she was around.

As she walked into the bar and sat down, Ranma got several appreciative looks from the men in the place, as her Chinese clothes hugged her figure rather well when they were wet. Trying her best to ignore them, she slumped down at the counter, next to a green haired woman who seemed to be well on her way to getting well and truly plastered. The bartender walked over to the newly arrived customer, smiling at her. "What can I get you?" He asked, leaning against the bar.

"I'll take a glass of water." Ranma muttered, looking at the windows sullenly. She really hated rain. Not just because it triggered her curse, but because it always soaked through her clothes and made her really, really cold.

Ranma glanced around the bar as she waited for her water to arrive, not seeing anything of interest. There was that green haired woman next to her, and some guys in the back corners. Nothing really else around. Deciding to try and strike up a conversation with the green haired woman, Ranma spoke. "You're drinkin a lot there, ain't ya?"

The woman looked over at Ranma, glaring. "You shut up. You haven't had to be the time guardian before, have you?"

"Huh?" Ranma asked, blinking.

"Oh. That's just Ms. Meiou." The bartender said, setting Ranma's water on the bar. "She always says things like that when she gets good and drunk. Just ignore her. She's quite a nice person when she's sober, you know. Guidance councilor at Juuban Jr. High, I hear."

Ranma just slowly nodded, taking a sip out of her glass of water. As she set it down, Ranma heard the front door of the bar open. Turning to face the person who had just entered, she blinked in surprise. It was Haruka, his hair stuck to his head with moisture and his leather jacket soaked.

Coming over to the bar, Haruka sat next to Ranma. "I'll take a small glass of warm sake." She said, laying some money on the table. "Got miserable all of a sudden, eh?" She asked, turning to the person next to her. She stopped as she caught a look at the girl who was sitting there. The word cute failed to describe the short redhead. Haruka's mind slipped a few gears for a second, before she regained control of herself. "Hey. I haven't seen you around here." She said, finally managing to get her mouth working again. Fortunately for her, she didn't have the same problem with women that Ranma did.

Ranma noticed Haruka taking a long, ogling look at her, however she resisted the urge to beat the crap out of him for it. After all, he had helped her yesterday, and beating the crap out of one who had helped you was just not done. "I just moved in a while ago." Ranma responded, answering Haruka's question.

"Really? What's your name?" Haruka asked, gratefully taking the small saucer of Sake from the bar tender.

"I'm Um… Ran…Ko." Ranma said, almost having said Ranma instead. Telling Haruka about her curse wasn't exactly on her to do list for today.

"That's a pretty name." Haruka said, casually. "It's really appropriate, too."

Ranma twitched. She had forgotten that the name Ranko had two meanings, and Haruka had obviously taken the second. 'Must not hit him. He's a nice guy.' Ran through Ranma's head like a mantra. Finishing up her glass of water, Ranma quickly paid the bar tender and began walking towards the entrance of the bar. "Well, the rain's let up enough for me to get home see you some time goodbye!" She said, all in one sentence, as she left the place.

Haruka shook herself violently when the short girl had left. 'that was about as subtle as a gun shot, Tenoh." She congratulated herself. She normally didn't flirt that blatantly, especially if she wasn't sure that the girl she was flirting with was receptive to Lesbianism, but there was just something about the Redhead that attracted her to her. In fact, she had met another person within the last couple of days who also had that quality. The weird part was, it was a guy. Dismissing these troubling thoughts from her mind, Haruka swallowed the cup of warm sake in one gulp and headed for the door herself. Setsuna, unfortunately for her, snored through the entire conversation, blissfully unaware that the Senshi of Neptune and Uranus had met right next to her.

END


	5. chapter 4, Hangovers and Chaos Vortexes

Chapter 4. Hangovers and Chaos Vortexes.

The morning after Haruka's first meeting with Ranko, Ranma was sprawled out on her bed, snoring softly. It was a Sunday, her only day off, and she was enjoying her chance to sleep in to the fullest. At around eight thirty, she finally stretched for the final time, getting out of bed and making breakfast. After quickly eating it, she walked out of her apartment in search of something to do… and bumped into Haruka, who was obviously having the same thoughts.

Haruka blinked as she saw Ranko exiting Ranma's apartment, wearing a white undershirt and black pants. 'Does she live with him?' She thought, feeling disappointed for some reason. It would figure if the two people in this area that she found remotely attractive were in love with each other. "Hello Ranko san." She said, waving at the redhead anyways.

'Ranko?' Ranma thought, finally realizing that she hadn't bothered to change back to male form when she had gotten home last night. Cursing to herself, she turned to Haruka, who was standing by the elevator. "Hello Haruka San." She said, walking up to stand next to the blonde.

Haruka blinked. She was sure that she hadn't told Ranko her name in the bar yesterday, so how did she know it? Deciding to satisfy her curiosity, she asked this.

"Oh… Uh," Ranma said, cursing herself for forgetting about that. "My brother told me about you." She said, knowing that she was horrible at lying but also knowing that this would be a REALLY strange thing to lie about.

"Your brother?" Haruka asked, stepping onto the now arriving elevator.

Ranma followed her on, answering as she went. "Yeah. Ranma. I was um… apartment sitting for him because he went on a training trip last night." She said, quickly.

Mentally, Haruka gave herself the victory sign. Ranko WAS free. Deciding that she would bide her time and not make an ass of herself like she had the night before, she remained silent for the rest of the elevator ride.

HR

Meanwhile, in a small apartment in Juuban district, Setsuna Meiou woke up with a splitting headache. "I hate hangovers…" She moaned, rolling off of her bed and onto the floor with a soft THUD. This, of course, only aggravated her headache, but she ignored the pain for a moment, stumbling to her feet and heading for the bathroom.

Splashing her face with cold water, Setsuna looked into her own slightly blood shot eyes. "Great work Setsuna. Get drunk out of your mind while looking for the Senshi of Neptune…" She grumbled, slightly disgusted with herself. That was something that one of those psycho main streamers would do, not her. Setsuna, or rather Sailor Pluto, had a rather strange view of herself. She had a perfectly good sense of self-esteem, yet she was completely disgusted with herself on a regular basis. You see, one of the things she was still capable of doing even in her slightly low level capacity as a time mage was to view other time streams. In most of them, "Crystal Tokyo" was a possibility, and the Setsunas there had done positively disgusting things in order to insure it's coming. With an unbiased perspective on the matter, Setsuna could see the pure cruelty that some of her counterparts had exhibited, not to mention the incompetence of others. There was this one she had seen recently where she had just plain decided to KILL a chaos vertex. She had learned in basic temporal mechanics class that that was a VERY bad idea, but she had tried it anyways. Now what was that vertex's name again? It could be a good idea for her to keep tabs on it.

As she remembered the face and name of the Chaos vertex that her counterpart had tried to kill, Setsuna's eyes shot wide open. Transforming, which instantly washed away her hang over, Pluto teleported to the time gates in order to confirm a suspicion of hers. Pulling up an image of the Chaos vertex, Pluto gazed into the eyes of the boy who she had seen just two days earlier, with a sign of Neptune on his forehead. Suddenly, the headache from her hangover returned, Senshi fuku be damned. "Can My life get any worse!" Pluto wailed, shaking her fist at the murky grey sky of the gate chamber.

HR

Meanwhile, in the district of Nerima, Ukyo Kuonji clutched a letter in her shaking hands. It had come first thing this morning, and it was from her father. Shortly after Ranma's dissolving of all of his engagements, she had sent a letter detailing the events in Nerima to her father, hoping to get a response that told her to come back home, or at least telling her that he understood. The letter that she held in her hands was NOT what she had expected, or wanted.

From, Akira Kuonji.

To, Ukyo Kuonji.

Dear Ukyo. I have read your letter and understand the situation in Nerima. Since you have failed in your task of becoming a Saotome in order to restore our honour, you must do the only other thing that will. You must exterminate both Genma, and his son. I do not care if the boy has gone Ronin, he must be killed to restore our family honour. I'm sure that you can succeed in this task, My Son.

Ukyo's hands trembled as she read the last line. "My SON." He didn't even have the decency to acknowledge her real gender in a private letter and he wanted her to kill Ranma? She would happily get rid of the shag carpet known as Genma, but Ranma had, at one time, been her best friend and she honestly still loved him. With tears running down her face, Ukyo glared hatefully at the letter until she heard a rustling sound from her door. Looking up, she saw the form of Konatsu standing in the opening, holding a tray of tea. "Konatsu?" She asked, blinking.

"Hello Ukyo sama." Konatsu said, timidly. "I hope I am not disturbing you, but I thought you could use some calming tea…" Walking into the room, he set the tray down next to the place where Ukyo was sitting. To the cross dressing Ninja's surprise, his master grabbed him in a hug as soon as he had set down the tray, sobbing into his shoulder. Clumsily, he tried to comfort her. Catching sight of the crumpled letter on the floor and the name written on the top, Konatsu wondered who Akira Kuonji was, and how much pain he should put him in for making Ukyo sama cry…

HR

At the closed down Cat Café, Elder Cologne had also received a letter. She held it in shaking hands, a small battle aura building up around her. 'How could they do this!' She yelled in her mind, the building aura singeing the edges of the paper. The letter in her hands was written in Mandarin Chinese, and it was post marked from the closest town to the Joketsuzoku village. Apparently, in her absence, her post as a matriarch had been declared up for grabs and another member of her house had been appointed as it's new leader. She had been declared a runaway from the tribe, along with Shampoo and Mousse and they would be killed on sight if they ever entered Amazon lands. With a growl of fury and frustration, Cologne allowed her battle aura to consume the letter in flames. How could she have been so stupid? Now she had NO station back home and was in fact an outcast. and all because her great granddaughter had wanted an outsider Airen. No, it wasn't just Shampoo's fault. She had stuck around, finding the thrill of training Ranma to be fun after two hundred years of being an "All knowing elder."

Sighing, Cologne pogoed into the back of the cat café to get her belongings. Maybe she could catch up to Mousse…

In the "Noble" house of Kuno, Tatewaki was staring at two posters on his wall. One showed Akane Tendo gracefully going into a powerful punch and the other showed a jumping pigtailed girl, coming down into a kick. The only thing that marred the second image was that her kick was aimed at him. He was staring at these two images as he thought of how to break the spell that the foul fiend Saotome had over his two loves. Even when he had left the district in disgrace, Akane still didn't show her boundless love for the blue thunder and the pigtailed girl hadn't been seen in a week! The foul cur even ensorcelled the mercenary Nabiki Tendo, as she had refused to sell Kuno any' information on Ranma, or provide him with any pictures of her younger sister or the pigtailed girl. She said that she was withholding her services because of his morning tussles with Akane every day, but how could anyone have a problem with such spars?

Kuno shuddered as he heard his sister's maniacal laughter come through the mansion, echoing through it's many hallways. When she had heard of Ranma's cowardly retreat, she had just started howling in laughter and secreted herself in her chambers. Kuno didn't know what she was doing, and he didn't want to.

HR

At the Tendo Dojo, Nabiki was sitting in her room, a book in front of her that listed the financial status of the Tendo family. The Dojo would take a lot of money to rebuild, almost all of her private stock in fact, and they were slightly tight for cash at the moment. It was a good thing that shampoo was who knows where looking for Ranma, because her usual wall destroying would have been enough to push the family over the edge.

As she gnawed on an eraser tip between her teeth, Nabiki heard someone knocking at her door. "Come in!" She yelled, closing her ledger and turning her swiveling computer chair around to face the door.

To Nabiki's surprise, Kasumi came walking into the room, her hands fiddling with the bottom of her apron. This was strange, as Kasumi very rarely bothered Nabiki unless she needed to clean her room, and she always did that in early morning. Of course, Kasumi had been delegating more chores to other people of late, and Nabiki hoped that she wasn't about to give notice that she was to clean her own room from now on. Nabiki wouldn't really mind, but she had gotten used to her older sister doing everything and had honestly taken her a bit for granted. Breaking out of her musings, Nabiki spoke. "Hi sis. What's up?" She asked, leaning back in her office chair.

Kasumi's apron fiddling became a bit worse as she started to speak. "Well… Nabiki… I was wondering if we could spare some money soon? I was thinking that I would finally go to school and well, get my medical degree."

Nabiki blinked. "Huh?" She asked, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly.

"Well, you know that I was going to be a doctor when I got out of school until mother died." Kasumi said, looking worried at her younger sister's stunned expression.

Nabiki blinked rapidly. Kasumi, Miss unmarried housewife of the year, wanted to go to school? Forcing her astonishment to the side, Nabiki honestly thought about her older sister's request. Money was tight at the moment, but most universities and colleges didn't start their regular year for about three weeks yet, and if she REALLY milked Kuno for all he was worth she might be able to come up with enough money for a basic tuition by then. With this in mind, she slowly began to speak. "I think I could pull that off… but it'll take a while. Money's kind of tight right now." She explained, seeing her sister's downcast expression. "You could end up starting school late after the beginning of the year, is that all right?"

"Really?" Kasumi asked, looking back to Nabiki's face with a radiant smile. "Thank you Nabiki!" She said, hugging her younger sister.

Nabiki blinked in surprise as Kasumi engulfed her in an almost bone crushing hug. This was VERY unexpected from the usually shy and polite girl, who occasionally seemed like an air head. "Need… air…." Nabiki choked out, causing Kasumi to let her go with a small blush.

"I'm sorry about that Nabiki." She said, embarrassed. "Thank you so much, and I've even got the school picked out." Saying this, she fished around in the pocket of her house dress and came out with a pamphlet. Putting it on Nabiki's desk, she thanked her again before leaving the room.

"Did I wake up in the twilight zone last week or something?" Nabiki wondered, looking at the closed door. Turning to her desk again, she picked up the pamphlet, curious about where her older sister wanted to go to school. "The Infinity Academy, eh…" She muttered, reading it over.

HR

GosDownstairs, Genma and Soun were sitting at the Shogi board, having finally come out of their week long drinking binge. At the moment, they were deep in a planning session on how to get Ranma back. So far, their only plan had been to find him and rant at him until he realized the error of his ways.

The two men had far different reasons for wanting Ranma back. Soun, of course, wanted Ranma to come back so that there was a competent practitioner of anything goes martial arts at the Dojo other than Akane, who he couldn't bring himself to let fight, to her immense irritation.

Genma wanted Ranma back because he couldn't trade his son's hand in marriage for food anymore, as the people he tried to trade it to always looked the boy up on the family register and found out he was ronin. He HAD to get Ranma back! He was actually paying for his bar tabs HIMSELF recently.

On the other side of the room, Nodoka was sitting and drinking tea. She still hadn't found out everything about her son yet, and wasn't ready to try and find him yet. One thing she was curious of however was a technique that she had heard he used called the… "Neko Ken?" Apparently, everyone who knew of it regarded it as Genma's largest stupidity to date, and even the loyal wife that she was, she could see that her husband had been VERY stupid in raising his son. She was fingering a small book that said "Advanced training manual" with the hand that wasn't holding her tea cup and was about to start reading it. We shall leave the Tendo house now, as the panda bashing that is about to commence is far too violent for the faint of heart.

HR

In a clearing in the middle of a small, green park, Ranma was running through practice kata, slowly working out the kinks in his muscles. He hadn't been able to stretch well for the past week, although he had gotten some pretty good training in, and just relaxing felt really nice. As he went through a beginner's move set, extremely quickly, Ranma heard rustling in the trees nearby. Turning around reflexively, he whipped a hand out, stopping it inches from the face of… Haruka?

Haruka was walking through a city park, deciding to take a day off before she really started in the racing circuit. She had completed putting her bike together yesterday, and she had a race booked for tomorrow, but there was nothing to do today. Hearing the sound of something moving through the air very rapidly from a bunch of bushes nearby, Haruka curiously walked over to them and looked into the clearing beyond. To her surprise, Ranma was in the middle of the clearing, moving so quickly that she could barely see him. This was quite an accomplishment, as Haruka's constant dealing with high speed motor vehicles allowed her to see things that moved very quickly. As she watched, Haruka accidentally brushed up against a branch nearby, causing Ranma to turn around, swing out a fist and stop it a millimetre from her face. Haruka blinked a few times, before stuttering out, "H… Hi Ranma. Did I startle you?"

"Woops…" Ranma said, lowering his fist. "I used ta get attacked a lot. Sorry about that." He blushed and scratched the back of his head.

"That's all right. Those were some pretty cool moves there, though." Haruka said, remembering back to Ranma's fast movements. "I'm a good street fighter, and that was way beyond me."

"Oh. That was Anything goes martial arts. It's my school… though I don't know if I'm considered a student of it anymore." Ranma explained.

"Really? Why not?" Haruka asked, inquisitively. "Did you give up on it?"

Nah. It was a family school. I kinda ended up going Ronin." Ranma explained, wondering if Haruka was going to walk away in disgust. For some reason, he hoped that he wouldn't.

For a moment, Haruka was taken aback at Ranma being Ronin. He didn't seem all that bad, and she wondered what he had done to get thrown out of his clan. Then again, she was a run away, which was almost as bad, and he could have had reasons for going ronin. All she said was, "Well. Those were pretty cool moves anyways, family school or not. Can you teach me?"

Ranma was surprised. Haruka wanted training? He looked strong enough, although Ranma had never seen him fight, but Ranma wasn't even sure if he was ALLOWED to teach martial arts anymore. Deciding to play it safe, he answered, "Well… If I only taught ya the basics, I think It'd be all right. How about next weekend? It's gettin late now."

"Sure. That would be great." Haruka answered, noting that the sun was going down and the sky was darkening. "I guess we'd better head back to the building, then?"

"Yeah." Ranma said, and then got a strange expression on his face. "Student. For your first test, you have to keep up with me!"

"Guh?" Haruka asked, as Ranma took off into the trees surrounding the clearing. "hey! Get back here!" Saying this, she charged after him.

END


	6. Chapter 5, Departures and arrivals

Chapter 5. Departures and arrivals.

Ranma walked down the street, his emotions mixed. It had been almost a week since he had agreed to train Haruka, and he was slightly nervous that he would screw up in the other man's training. Also, the last of the exterior framing for the building he had been working on had gone up, and he wasn't qualified for interior work, so he had been told by Mr. Carwell that he should head down to the Metro centre on Monday. He had no idea what he was going to do there, and that made him rather edgy.

As Ranma was approaching his home, a randomly dumped bucket of water hit him over the head. "Oh! I'm sorry miss." A woman called, from the balcony of an apartment building next to Ranma.

With a sigh of exasperation, Ranma removed the bucket from her head and heaved it back up to the balcony that it had come from, waving at the surprised woman who now found it balanced on her railing before walking on. Actually, Ranma was slightly glad that the curse had activated today. It had seemed to get unusually quiet in this ward, and she was beginning to wonder if it was gearing up to seriously embarrass her. Not to mention that a small part of her would have missed the change if it were ever taken away, no matter how often she denied it.

Seeing a grinning Haruka in the driveway of the apartment building, Ranma diverted her path in order to see what he was grinning about. Even if Haruka had tried to hit on her every time he saw her, he was an all right guy, and she figured that he'd eventually get the hint that she completely ignored his advances. "Hey Haruka san! What're you so happy about?" Ranma called, noticing that Haruka was holding something in his hands.

"Oh Hi Ranko san." Haruka said, still smiling happily, especially since the redhead had shown up. "I just won my first race here. Big prize, too." He explained, holding up the trophy and check that rested in his right hand.

Ranma smirked. "Well, I hope you're still up for training tomorrow."

Haruka looked confused for a moment before she made the connection. "R… Ranma told you about that?" She asked, blushing.

"Well, yeah." Ranma said, smirking. "I'll be trainin ya too, some times. Ranma's got this tendency to take off on trips to nowhere at the strangest times… Mostly when it starts rainin, for some reason." Ranma mentally smirked. She had been getting slightly better at telling half truths and lies ever since she had first started dealing with Nabiki, and so long as she wasn't under any pressure she could come up with some pretty good ones.

"Oh." Haruka said, looking slightly surprised. "Well, I'm sure training with you will be interesting." She said, stressing the last word.

Ranma resisted the urge to roll her eyes. At least he wasn't as blatant as the fiancées back home… she quickly forced her mind off of THAT particular topic, as she really didn't want to think about it.

HR

Back in Nerima, three girls sneezed.

HR

On a road deep within a shadowed forest of Japan, Shampoo let off a loud, and very unladylike sneeze, causing her head to jerk up and slam into a tree.

"Ouch!" She yelped, rubbing her head in pain. She was getting very annoyed by this point. She had been searching the countryside for the last week and a half, and she hadn't found hide nor hair of her allusive Airen. This didn't make any sense! Males couldn't outwit Amazon trackers! Even if her Airen was part female, one of the reasons why she loved him so much, he shouldn't be able to escape her tracking skill for this long. Stumbling out of the forest and onto a road, Shampoo began to march down it, determined to find her Airen and make him hers, no matter what obstacle entered her path.

She couldn't believe that her great grandmother, an ELDER of the Amazons, had just let him walk out of the café. She should have at least knocked him out so that they could do SOMETHING to make him reconsider.

With an annoyed growl under her breath, Shampoo continued on her trek, incidentally going in the opposite direction to Tokyo.

HR

Back in Nerima, Ukyo wiped her nose, annoyed that the sneeze she had just let off had made her drop a box of cooking supplies. Reaching down and picking it up, she packed it into the moving van that was sitting outside of her restaurant. "Hey Konatsu! Bring me out the dishes, okay?" She called back into the front room of the restaurant, watching the male Kunoichi pick up a box carefully and bring it to her.

"Hear you are, Ukyo sama." Konatsu said, handing Ukyo the box. "I still do not know why you wish to move the restaurant, Ukyo sama…" He said, looking at her confusedly.

Ukyo sighed. "I thought I explained this before, Konatsu. I'm moving to the Juuban shopping district because I heard rumours of an expert martial artist doing construction work over there. I may not like the orders my father gave me," She spat the word father as if it was an insult, "But I have to try and complete them, or he'll cast me out of the clan and I won't be able to run the restaurant anymore."

Konatsu looked down sadly. "So you are going to kill Ranma San?" He asked, worried about his master having to kill her oldest friend. Also, in his heart he knew that Ukyo would be beaten by Ranma easily, but didn't really want to think about it.

Ukyo laughed, half mirthful and half bitter. "Of course I'm going to TRY. I'm just gunna be really bad at it. Get it sugar?" She asked, winking at Konatsu.

The ninja smiled slightly, running into the restaurant in order to get more boxes.

In the shadows of a wall next to the storefront of Ukyo's shop, a black shadowed form crept away. 'I must report this to Master Kuno…' Sasuke thought, hopping up to a rooftop and heading for the Kuno estates. Even if he really didn't want to bother Ranma, who had actually been NICE to him a few times, Orders were orders, and his master had asked him to track down Ranma so that he could challenge him. With a slightly sad sigh, the little ninja bounded into the front courtyard of the Kuno mansion, headed for his master's quarters. He noticed dimly that Kodachi sama's mad laughter had been interrupted for a moment and wondered what had caused it.

HR

In the front room of the Tendo Dojo, Soun and Genma were playing their ever present game of Go while still discussing what they were going to do about Genma's son. Genma, however, did this from the comfort of a full body cast. It seems that Nodoka did NOT appreciate the notion of her son being tossed in a pit of starving cats numerous times. Rumour has it, though the doctors who operated on him don't have the stomach to confirm it, that Nodoka actually castrated Genma with her Katana before allowing Soun to rush him to the emergency room.

"What your son did is simply shameful…" Soun said, moving a piece.

Genma grunted in acknowledgement, as his mouth was wired shut, and made a slight movement with his left pinkie finger, the only one free of the cast, that told Soun where he wanted his piece moved. Soun cheerfully moved Genma's piece in the wrong direction, causing the Saotome patriarch to grunt in annoyance, but not do anything else.

"And what Nodoka did…" Soun said, shuddering. He remembered when he had once gotten similar wrath from his own wife, for trying to forbid her from the arts, and was in full sympathy with his friend's pain.

Genma slightly nodded, his eyes watering and twin tracks of tears coming from them.

"Ah, I know the pain of a loved one being cross with me…" Soun said, solemnly.

Genma shook his head slightly, and said a few garbled words."EI Tinq EI Brok M Nek…"

Soun just chuckled, thinking his friend had tried to cheer him up.

On the other side of the room, Nodoka was sitting across from Nabiki on a cushion. "So you have the papers ready, dear?" She asked, tapping her fingers nervously on the wood.

Nabiki smirked predatorily. She had always disliked Genma, and now she got to be part of his punishment for hurting Ranma, almost a member of her family, so badly. Passing the papers over to Nodoka she nodded. "Your divorce papers, as well as a little addition of my own. It's a donation form for a rare, or endangered animal to be submitted to the Tokyo zoo."

"Why would I want that?" Nodoka asked, confused.

"I heard they needed a new Panda after their old one died…" Nabiki said, smirking more widely.

Nodoka smiled almost as widely as Nabiki, but her smile disappeared when she looked at the papers in front of her. They were divorce papers. It was perfectly legal in this day and age, but it was so.. distasteful. It was an admission that she had been wrong in picking a husband, and that she wanted rid of him. Images of her son being tossed into a dark pit to be mauled flashed into her mind, and she grabbed a pen in preparation to sign the forms that would leave the Saotome clan with one, barely, living member.

HR

Master Happosai cackled as he came running into the small ward of Nerima, jumping to windows and stealing undies as he came. He had gone on a little "Vacation" right after that disastrous failed wedding between Ranma and Akane, to get away from the men who kept trying to attack him. Yeesh. How was HE supposed to know that that water was their last chance to be normal men again? Strangely enough, Ranma hadn't joined in on the chase, retreating to the Tendo roof instead.

Despite all appearances to the contrary, Happosai DID worry and care about his students. He had just been living so long that the term "Cantankerous old coot" fit him so well that his face should be in the dictionary next to it, and he was a little concerned for his latest heir. He knew that the battle against that phoenix, Saffron, had really stressed Ranma a lot and the failed wedding on top of that just may have pushed him over the edge. All the more reason to stay out of the district for a while, as Happosai wasn't sure that he could take out a fully furious Ranma. Hell, he wasn't sure he could take Ranma if he was seriously fighting anymore. Of course, he wouldn't admit this to the boy, he had a big enough ego as it was. Happosai cackled louder as the Tendo Dojo came into sight and he hopped into the front entrance. "Everyone, I'm home!" He yelled, Strolling into the front door.

As always, Kasumi was there with a small smile to greet him. "Oh, hello Grandfather." She said, serenely.

"hello Kasumi dear." Happosai said, walking past the eldest Tendo, and the only female in the area who was completely free of his grope greetings. Groping her would probably get the Kami to call down judgment on him… again.

Walking into the living room of the Dojo, Happosai wasn't entirely surprised to see Genma sitting at the Go table in a body cast, but what did surprise him was that the Chi signature left on the wounds was NOT Ranma's. Looking around for the source, he saw Nodoka, serenely sitting on a cushion next to the dining table and signing some papers.

"Hi No Chan, what'cha doing?" Happosai asked, climbing up her back, incidentally groping her butt, in order to sit on and look over her shoulder.

Nodoka's eye twitched as she looked over at Happosai. "DO you want me to try and practice my sword skills on you again?" She asked, flatly.

Happosai blanched and hopped off of Nodoka's shoulder. Although she was a mediocre swordswoman, she seemed to have the same skill as Akane for hitting ANY martial artist she was angry with no matter his skill and her Katana was a lot sharper than Akane's blunt instruments. "Well, what are you doing?" He asked, craning his neck to read the papers she was signing. "Divorcing Genma? What in the world did he do?"

Nodoka looked over at Happosai and spoke, still signing the papers with one eye focused on them. "I found out about the Neko Ken… and some of my husband's OTHER ill advised training ideas." She explained, glaring at Genma.

"Ah. That would explain it." Happosai said, producing a pipe from nowhere and smoking from it. "Where's my wiser student?"

Soun perked up. "I'm right here, master!" he said, running to Happosai's side.

"Not you, you moron!" The old pervert said, hitting Soun over the head and knocking him out. "I meant Ranma!"

"Ranma kun renounced his family name and went ronin." Kasumi said, as she brought in a cup of tea for Happosai. He didn't know the new rules of the house yet, and it was only right that she serve him until she could tell him about them.

Happosai's eyes narrowed. "I see…" he muttered, putting his pipe back into his mouth. 'Can't say I really blame the boy.' He thought, munching on the pipe's stem, 'But I can't let my school die out with THOSE idiots…' He shuddered as he looked at Soun and Genma. "Thanks for the info Kasumi!" He said, before gulping down the cup of tea and hopping out the porch doors of the Dojo.

HR

In the Juuban district of the Minato ward, Mousse stared up at a large, empty store front. He had no visible luggage, as everything he owned, including his bed, was stuffed into his dimensional pocket. He fingered one of the real pockets in his robe, still feeling a rather large bulge. He couldn't believe it. He had actually been given a rather large sum of money by Cologne, her saying that if he was going to be a Japanese male, he may as well get paid like one and that that was his salary for the past year and a half.

With a small smile, Mousse walked into the empty storefront, taking down the "For Sale" sign and putting up a small wooden sign with a picture of a white duck on it. The duck was wearing a thick pair of glasses and over it's head rested the words "The Peking Duck Café.

HR

Later that day, Sailor Pluto appeared in her apartment with a flash of light. Transforming back to civilian form, she began cursing up a blue streak. The time gates wouldn't show her ANYTHING on this new incarnation of sailor Neptune. His Chaos vertex nature seemed to be throwing off the gate, but that was impossible. The only way that could have happened was if she had come into contact with him, causing her fate to hit his chaotic one. The problem was that she had no recollection of running into the black haired boy. Even when she was drunk out of her mind, she could still remember faces, and the only two that stuck in her mind were a cross dresser named Haruka Tenoh, AKA sailor Uranus, and a short red haired girl. No black haired boys to speak of.

With an exasperated sigh, Setsuna flicked her wrist, causing the henshin pens of Uranus and Neptune to appear in her hand. It would be risky, but she thought that she should try a partial awakening, so that the two would radiate a magical signature that she could track. Channeling a VERY small amount of power into the pens, she sent it down their connecting lines to their senshi. Feeling a slight backlash from each, she put them away again, deciding to wait.

That night, Ranma lay in his bed, tossing and turning. He was having a very strange dream.

HR

Neptune stood on the command deck of the planetary defence command centre, glaring out at the armada that was approaching. The outer planets had lost contact with all of the inner guard accept for the Luna palace, and Beryl's Terran forces had overwhelmed the inners' lightly defended home worlds. Luckily for Herself, Uranus and Pluto, they were the outer guard, and their worlds were heavily defended.

"Lady Neptune. Terran dreadnaught coming on bearing 132.6." a sensor operator reported, his voice trembling slightly with fear.

"Focus main particle cannon on that ship. Blow it out of space!" Neptune yelled, pointing at the ship on the viewer. Anyone who saw her in court at the palace would be amazed to see her now, almost as commanding as her lover one planet over. Her usual delicate and soft spoken manner was replaced with a hard commanding edge that said "If you want to mess with me, I'll kill you."

"Yes Ma'am!" The gunnery operator said, swivelling in his chair to command three different defence installations to open up at once. The Terran dreadnaught exploded into so many pieces, the Mercurian firepower at Neptune's disposal making it into so much scrap metal.

"Lady Neptune!" The sensor man called again, his voice laced with panic. "A Terran troop carrier has managed to sneak in through the blind spot left by the dreadnaught. It's breached our hull and some sort of monsters are entering the station!"

"Serenity damn them!" Neptune cursed, walking to a lift at the back of the bridge and going down to the breached deck.

HR

"Deep Submerge!" Neptune yelled, throwing a ball of supercharged water at her enemy. The monster screeched in pain, the power of the blast throwing it back into a group of it's friends. From behind Neptune, a burst of laser rifle fire took down some more of the monsters, the station's security teams fighting alongside their princess to save the planet around which they lived. As Neptune and her troops prepared for a second wave, they heard a massive stomping noise. From the hull breach, and the transport on the other side, came a colossal hulking form. Neptune threw her deep submerge at it, but it only staggered for a moment. The guards' laser fire had no effect. After a five minute long brutal battle, Neptune was slashed badly along the side of her torso, and crumpled to the ground. Desperately trying to climb to her feet, she saw the monster grin evilly at her before it began to glow.

HR

"Lady Uranus! The Neptune central defence station has exploded!" Someone reported, from the bridge of the flagship of the Uranus fleet, Serenity's pride. Uranus was the home of the solar system's space navy, a rather strange oddity since Neptune had the water affinity.

Sailor Uranus's face went white as she heard these words. "Was lady Neptune aboard the station?" She asked, her voice trembling.

"…yes Ma'am…" The sensor operator said, his face filling with shock.

Uranus's fist clenched and a small tear worked it's way down the side of her face. "They are going to pay!" She yelled, then turned to her helmsman. "Set a course for the terran fleet. Gunnery, fire at will. I want them space dust!"

The people on the bridge scrambled to obey, knowing that their leader was so furious that she may take out her wrath on them if they didn't.

"Ma'am. The queen is ordering you to withdraw to the moon." Uranus's comm. officer said, calmly.

"Ignore her." Uranus hissed, rage in her eyes. "Those bastard earthers are going to pay!"

"Ma'am?" The comm. operator said, in a state of semi-shock.

Uranus just ignored her.

After a few minutes of hard fighting, The Serenity space navy had wiped out most of the Terran force of ships. All that was left was their capital ship, the Endymion. It's massive shield system kept almost any attacks from landing, and it's main cannon kept obliterating Space Navy ships left and right.

Seeing another of her laser volleys reflect off of the Endymion's shields, Uranus gritted her teeth. "There's only one way to get rid of that ship." She said, glaring at the screen. "Anyone who wishes to survive, abandon ship now…"

The bridge crew looked at her, disbelieving. "Lady Uranus?" Her helmsman breathed, his eyes widening.

"You heard me." She snapped, walking towards the helm post. Reluctantly, the bridge crew sounded the evacuation order and jumped ship, leaving Uranus alone on the Serenity's pride. Sitting at the helm console, she tapped a series of commands, causing the ship's power core to start overloading and it's engines to go full out. As the Endymion became larger and larger in her view screen, Uranus whispered the name " Neptune." Right before the two massive vessels collided, lighting up the space for several kilometres around them with atomic reactor fires that blinded all that looked at them.

Ranma and Haruka both woke up in a cold sweat, the dream fleeing into the backs of their minds, leaving very little memory. "That was freaky…" They both muttered, rolling over in their beds and going back to sleep.

END.

A few ppl have said, "How can Ranma NOT tell Haruka is a girl? He's had lots of experience with crossdressers." To this I respond with three facts. He spent MONTHS playing with Ukyo as a kid and never figured it out, having to rip her shirt open and expose her breasts to find out. He went so far as to think his masculinity was threatened when Tsubasa wouldn't fall for him and Konatsu got close enough to almost KISS him without being found out. Ranma has a serious blind spot in this area. It's not me being funny, it's the truth!


	7. Chapter 6, Training and contemplation

Chapter 6. Training and contemplation.

Haruka woke up the next morning feeling rather refreshed. Bits and pieces of the strange dream from last night floated at the edge of her consciousness, but she ignored them as she got dressed. It was rather amusing that, although she was cross dressing as a boy, she had to take more time than an average girl in the mornings. After getting dressed and drinking a cup of overwhelmingly strong coffee, Haruka left her apartment and walked over to knock on the apartment door of Ranma. She heard a few soft thumping sounds before Ranma opened the door, dressed in a pair of boxers and a muscle shirt.

"Oh Hi Haruka san." Ranma said, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. Getting the correct amount of sleep truly was a wonderful thing.

"Hi Ranma." Haruka said, for some reason feeling rather warm at seeing his muscles under the shirt. She barely refrained from shaking herself. She liked girls, and that was it. There had never been another guy who made her feel like this, so it was something about Ranma, but she'd just ignore it. After all, she felt the same way about his sister and two timing one with the other would be not only morally wrong but a REALLY bad idea.

"Haruka, are you okay?" Ranma asked, snapping his fingers in front of Haruka's face. He had apparently drifted off, thinking about something.

"Huh?" Haruka asked, shaking her head rapidly. "Oh. I'm fine. We going to start that martial arts training you were talking about last week?"

"Oh right." Ranma said, remembering. "Just let me get changed and we can go to the park to practice."

Haruka just nodded before Ranma closed the door.

HR

About twenty minutes later in the small park near the apartment building, Ranma was standing in a clearing with Haruka on the other side. "All right Haruka. You ready?" He asked, falling into a defensive stance.

Haruka nodded doubtfully. "What is this supposed to do again?" She asked, internally cringing at the prospect of actually fighting Ranma. She had assumed that he would do what her self defence instructors had done before, show her the moves and then have her use them on him, but she was very much mistaken, as she was about to find out.

"This is gunna let me check your skill level." Ranma explained, Moving one hand in front of him and making a "come here" gesture with it. "Now c'mon and give me all ya got!"

Haruka nodded, charging at Ranma with her best right hook. Ranma flowed away from it, coming around behind her and trying to poke her in the back. Much to Ranma's surprise, Haruka twisted out of the way, Ranma's finger glancing off of her shoulder. Ranma twisted out of the way of a return punch, coming up from below and landing a finger in her stomach.

The blow trading went on for about half an hour and Ranma began to notice what kind of fighting Haruka preferred. He seemed to be a lot like Ranma himself, but a lot less refined. He was slightly more dependant on speed instead of strength, his body slightly thinner than was needed for a muscler. 'This is gunna be fun!' Ranma thought, thinking that the type of training Haruka needed required Ranma to fight back. This wasn't going to be like Akane's training at all, since Haruka had the speed already and just needed some endurance and toughness. This basically meant that Ranma could actually fight him instead of dodging all the time to build up speed. Deciding to end the fight since he had gotten an idea of Haruka's skill level, Ranma extended a hooked leg and tried to snag Haruka around the ankle. Since this move was often used in street fights, Haruka saw it coming and retaliated by stomping on the leg, causing it to hit the ground.

Ranma grinned. This would definitely be more interesting than training Akane. Surprising Haruka, who thought that Ranma's leg was now immobilized, Ranma brought it around in a sweep and knocked the still planted leg out from under Haruka, sending her to the ground.

A few minutes later, Haruka lay panting on the ground, Ranma sitting next to her. "Is, this what, you do, every day?" She wheezed, clear incredulity in her voice.

"Nah." Ranma said, waiting for Haruka to look relieved. "I usually do a lot more."

Haruka's head, which had been raised off of the ground to ask the question, crashed back down with a thump.

Ranma sighed, picking Haruka up and walking over to lay her on a bench. Maybe this wasn't the best way to train a new student in anything goes… but it sure was fun for him!

Later that day, Haruka was sitting in a tree, looking incredulously at Ranma. "Fall?" She asked, her eyes almost popping out of her head.

"Yup." Ranma said, cheerfully, from his place on the ground.

"It'll kill me!" Haruka said indignantly, wondering what kind of loon she had decided to train with.

"No it won't!" Ranma said, still cheerful. "Pops did it to me when I was eight. It could break some bones, though. Don't worry. I'll catch ya if that looks like it's gunna happen."

"Gee, thanks…" Haruka said dryly, before letting off a sigh of resignation and rolling off of the branch. She hit the ground with a hard thud, raising a hand with the two fingered pain ward in place. "Ouch…" She muttered, rolling over and glaring at Ranma. "I thought you said you'd catch me?"

"I said I'd catch you if you were gunna break a bone." Ranma clarified, smirking evilly at her.

"Oh." Haruka said, dryly.

HR

In the Juuban shopping area, Five girls were wandering around, trying to find something to do. The Droid attacks had let up a bit recently, but Ami said that it was just the calm before the storm and that the dark moon family was going to start their final attack any time now. The stress was building up, so the group decided to take a trip to the shopping area to relax. The only fighting that had occurred was the obligatory squabbles between Rei and Usagi, but they were standard procedure. Just as the meatball headed blonde was about to become the target of another fiery outburst from her black haired best friend, Minako spoke up. "Hey guys. Isn't that a new restaurant?"

"Hmm?" Makoto, the resident food critic and chef of the group said, looking to where Minako was pointing. "The Peking Duck?" She asked, giggling at the cute image of a white duck on the sign.

Usagi looked as well. New restaurants equaled more food, a definite benefit in the Tsukino daughter's eyes. "Hey. Let's go in and try it out!" She said, grabbing Rei by the arm and dragging her behind as she ran excitedly towards the building.

"Let me go meatball head!" Rei shouted, being dragged behind her friend.

A sweat drop formed on Ami's temple as she followed her friends, wondering how Usagi could drag someone through the air like that.

Mousse looked up from writing a "Waitress wanted" add when he heard the bell above the door to his new restaurant tinkle. Seeing a group of five girls entering, he spoke. "Hello. Welcome to the Peking Duck!" He truly hated saying that every time someone came in, but it was part of the trade.

The five girls walked into the restaurant, and seeing that it currently only had the chairs around the counter, sat down there. For some reason, the brown haired tall one had gotten a glazed look in her eyes, but he ignored it in favour of walking up to the blonde, who seemed to be the leader of the little group, judging by how she had come in dragging the black haired girl. "Hello miss. Can I take your order?"

The bubbly blonde smiled, saying, "Can I have an extra large bowl of Ramen, beef topping?"

Mousse nodded, looking strangely at the girl. She seemed rather small to eat an extra large bowl, but then again, He HAD seen Ranma-Chan eat… Quickly taking the other girls' orders, except for the brunette, who just muttered, "He looks like my old sempai…" He quickly returned with three regular and one extra large bowls of Ramen, setting them in front of their respective owners. "Is there something wrong with her?" He asked, pointing at the brunette.

One girl, who looked rather a lot like Akane Tendo, shrugged. "She gets like this sometimes. She'll snap out of it eventually." She explained, taking a small taste of her Ramen. "This is quite good."

"Thanks." Mousse said, blushing slightly. "Ancient Chinese recipe."

The brunette snapped out of her dazed state instantly. "Ancient recipe, you say?" She asked, interestedly. She was always willing to pick up free cooking tips, especially for something that her friends liked.

"Yep, a secret of the restaurant." Mousse explained, cheerfully.

Makoto sighed dejectedly.

"So you just started this place?" A second blonde, this one with long hair and a red bow tying it up, asked.

"Yeah. I came from the Cat Café in Nerima, but this is the first place I've actually owned." Mousse said, Going over to take Usagi's empty Ramen bowl. Yep, she definitely ate like Ranma, there wasn't even any broth left in the bottom. Licked clean. Slipping the plate into one of his sleeves, Mousse put it into his stuff space for cleaning later.

The blonde clapped. "That was a pretty neat trick!" She said, looking for the bulge of the plate in his robes.

"Huh?" Mousse asked, blinking at her. "Oh. How I got rid of the plate? That was just part of my martial arts style."

After about half an hour of eating and talking in the Peking Duck, The five Senshi left, Makoto having a new crush. 'He can cook, he's handsome AND he knows martial arts?' She thought, "He's PERFECT!'

Minako had similar thoughts running around in her head. Ami sighed as she looked at the two boy crazy inner senshi. There they went again… Rei was pretty much indifferent, and Usagi was just happy that Mousse had decided to give her one of her XL Ramen on the house because she had bought so much food.

In the restaurant, Mousse was holding a bit of money and thinking, 'If those girls are the type of customers I always get, I'll be perfectly happy here…'

HR

Near the end of that day, Haruka was laying on the ground, sprawled out, while Ranma knelt beside her. She was feeling really bruised and battered, but on the plus side she had learned to fall from truly ridiculous distances without getting hurt. True, it was hard training, but it got it's point across.

Groaning, she said, "Man that hurts…" While massaging her shoulder.

"You can stop if ya want." Ranma said, concerned for Haruka. Even if he loved the art now, he had been FORCED to do this at an early age, and his first few years on the road were hell. Although he was going to push Haruka as hard as his father pushed him, he didn't want Haruka to be forced into it.

"Nah. I'm fine." Haruka said, taking her hand from her shoulder. "I just wasn't expecting this, is all. I thought you were going to teach me basic Kata or something, not throw me out of a tree to teach me how to fall."

"Well, learning how to fall is the first part of any martial art." Ranma explained, reasonably.

Haruka shrugged. Her self defence instructors had said the same thing, but some how she doubted they meant three metre drops out of tall trees and into rolls. The two fell silent for a moment, before Haruka spoke up again. She might as well try, right? "Ranma… I was wondering something."

"Yeah?" Ranma asked, looking curiously at Haruka.

"I was thinking, do you think you could convince your sister to go out with me?" Haruka said, realizing that this was by far the lowest she had EVER gone to get a date, but with the way Ranko was completely ignoring her, it had to be done.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, his brain taking a second to process the request. When he finally did, his eyes widened. "Um… Haruka… I don't think I can do that." He said, trying to keep an eye twitch down.

"Why not?" Haruka asked, actually curious.

"Well, Ranko's… Well… She REALLY, REALLY doesn't like guys." Ranma explained, putting the entirety of his vehemence behind that sentiment.

Haruka blinked. She was hoping that Ranko was interested in girls, but a hard core lesbian wasn't expected. She seemed so… feminine and small, despite the course manner of her speech. Of course, it would be easy enough to just tell her that Haruka was actually a girl, but someone who was as set against men as Ranma was saying that Ranko was just might reject her just for her cross dressing. Shrugging it off, she decided to take the risk. "Fine… Can you at least ask her to meet me tomorrow afternoon? It's not for a date or anything, I just want to tell her something."

Ranma considered for a moment. Haruka seemed really hopeful about this, and he was a pretty good friend. Not to mention that he was now Ranma's student. Besides, Ranma would definitely Not let anything happen. Might as well humour him, at least so that he didn't ask again. "All right Haruka. I'll see what I can do." Ranma responded, resignedly.

"Thanks Ranma!" Haruka said, grinning widely. She couldn't believe she was actually DOING this. She sounded like a lovesick school boy, and that was disturbing by itself. "Well, should we head back now? It's getting late.

"Ranma nodded, standing. "Can you walk?" He asked.

"Yeah, sure." Haruka said, dragging herself off of the ground and trying to take a few wavering steps. She stumbled on her third step and almost planted her face into the ground, Ranma's fast catch the only thing preventing it.

"Yeah, sure…" Ranma mocked, slinging Haruka over his shoulder in much the same way that she had two weeks earlier. "Let's get you back home." He said, walking towards the building.

That night, Ranma lay in bed, wondering what was going to happen tomorrow. He was starting a new job, and Haruka wanted to tell 'Ranko' something. Haruka was a friend, so he hoped that he wouldn't have to hurt him too badly the next day. With a tired sigh, Ranma fell into a restless sleep, worries playing through his mind.


	8. Chapter 7, Distraction and high speed mo

Chapter 7. Distraction and high speed motor vehicles don't mix.

That night, Ranma and Haruka had another set of dreams, A combination of the last of Pluto's fading magic pulse combined with their current thoughts. In Ranma's, he was in the midst of a great hall, a woman held in his arms and slow dancing. No, to be more accurate, he and the woman were holding each other and she was leading. Ranma hadn't really danced much, but he thought this was odd.

After several minutes of dancing, where Ranma saw several other couples, including a silver haired girl and a black haired man who seemed to catch his attention for some reason, he turned to his dance partner, and the two came in for a kiss. Ranma's eyes widened as he saw the woman's face. Her form was completely feminine, if a bit well muscled, but she had the face of Haruka.

"Gah…" Ranma said, sitting up in his bed. He wasn't nearly as shaken up as a nightmare would normally make him, but the shock of seeing Haruka's face on that girl had jolted him out of the dream state. For a brief moment, he caught himself wishing that Haruka really was a girl, because he was quite possibly one of the nicest people he had met in a while. Shaking his head and wondering where these strange thoughts had come from, Ranma pulled his covers up over his head, trying to get back to sleep.

HR

One apartment over, Haruka was having a similar dream. She was in the same grand hall, wearing a formal dress and dancing with someone. Although she was leading, the person she was dancing with seemed to shift constantly, between three different bodies. Looking at it, she briefly saw the form of a beautiful blue green haired woman, with delicate eye brows and a narrow facial structure. After that, the face shifted to show Ranko, the body going with it. A few seconds later, the body shifted again, luckily exchanging it's formal gown for a suit of armour as it became Ranma. 'What the hell's going on?' Haruka wondered, but continued to play out the dream until she woke up.

The next morning, Haruka stood in her bathroom and in front of her mirror, looking at herself. She hadn't put as much effort in her disguise today, and some feminine lines could be seen in her body and face. She had done this so that it would be easier to prove that she was a girl to Ranko. There was the root of the matter. Ranko was the only person, well the only girl, to make Haruka feel the way she was feeling right now. She had had crushes before, but nothing quite this… insistent… as if there was some sort of link tugging her to her. The strange thing was that the same link seemed to apply to her brother as well, and it only bothered Haruka Consciously. Her subconscious had no problem with it. Combing her hair into it's traditional cut, Haruka left her apartment, heading for the dirt track at the metro centre. She hated racing on dirt tracks. It always messed up her bike.

HR

"Damn it Tenoh, Stay focused!" A large, slightly pudgy man said, looking at the dirt track in slight horror. One of the new racers he had hired, one who had seemed like a real winner the last few races and who was famous for his racing expertise, was turning into a complete rookie right before his eyes. He was currently yelling because Haruka had missed one of the turns, sending her bike into the hay bales that lined the side of the track. Luckily, this was a practice, not a race, or Haruka would have lost for sure.

Haruka picked herself up from the pile of hay that her bike was buried in, brushing off her racing suit. "Sorry about that… I guess I just wasn't focusing.." She said, looking down. She hadn't been able to get her meeting with Ranko in the afternoon out of her mind ever since she had first gotten in today, and it showed.

"Well get your focus back! If you perform like this in the race on Wednesday we won't be needing your services anymore!" The fat man barked, glaring at Haruka.

She nodded, knowing that the glares were deserved. A screw up like that in a real race could cost her a place in the final five, let alone a winning spot. Picking up her bike again, Haruka got on it and continued down the track. Right after she had left sight of the smashed hay bales, A maintenance man showed up carrying a new one. He was new, only showing up today, but he was apparently very good and came highly recommended.

"Hey boss. Where do ya want this?" Ranma asked, hefting the light bale in one hand.

"Put it over there and get rid of the smashed one, Ranma." The fat man said, pointing. Ranma obliged, slightly wondering if coming here was such a good thing after all. All they had been having him do today was little errands, nothing really hard at all. Truthfully, it was kinda boring. He hoped that things would get better sooner or later.

HR

In the Juuban district, many people stared in disbelief as a small old woman pogoed down the street on a gnarled wooden walking staff. "It… it's a Youma!" One man screamed, running off in terror. Everyone else just looked at him strangely. Sure she was kind of odd looking, but she hadn't tried to drain anything yet and she wasn't all THAT odd looking.

Cologne briefly wondered what a "Youma" was and whether she should have pounded that boy over the head with her staff before she found the place that she was looking for.

Looking at the sign in the window, she had to smile. Mousse wasn't exactly her best student, but he knew of very interesting ways to use his cursed form.

As Cologne opened the door, Mousse looked up from where he was polishing one of the new tables that he had just bought that morning. "E… elder?" He asked, dropping his wet rag and looking at her in surprise.

"Not anymore child." Cologne sighed, coming into the restaurant.

"What?" Mousse asked, blinking from behind his thick glasses. "What do you mean you're not an elder anymore?"

"I was kicked off of the council and banished from Amazon lands." Cologne explained, evenly. Most of her anger at the council's decision had been replaced with resignation soon after she had heard of it, and she was now beginning to try and rebuild her life in Japan. "I was coming here to see if I could stay here, and work for you."

"Don't you mean you want the restaurant?" Mousse asked, his tone slightly resigned, but willing to help Cologne, especially since she had been the one to teach him his hidden weapons style.

"Of course not!" Cologne cackled, pogoing over to the counter. "An old lady like me can't be running a restaurant, now can she?" She asked, giving Mousse a wink.

"Really?" Mousse asked, smiling. "Well then, we do have a waitress position open."

"I'll take it." Cologne said, before reaching out and taking Mousse's hand. She wasn't an Amazon elder anymore, and she couldn't bare to take Mousse's new business from him, but she could help out, and maybe train him.

HR

A short distance away, Happosai was running through the streets and cackling. Who would have known that Minato ward held so many silky darlings! He still had to find Ranma, but it could wait for just a while, couldn't it? The best part of it was that he had heard there were some sort of mini-skirted protectors running around the ward. Genuine magical girls! He wondered what Magical Girl Panties would do to his Chi reserves. With another happy cackle, He hopped up to a nearby house's clothes line and stole a bra.

Ikuko Tsukino blinked as a blur came running past, snatching a pair of Usagi's panties from her hands just as she was about to put them up on the line. "Oh my, what in the world was that?" She wondered, opening and closing her now empty hands.

"What's the matter mom?" Usagi asked, sticking her head out of the back door.

"Nothing dear…" Ikuko muttered, going back to hanging up the laundry.

HR

In Nabiki's room at the Tendo Dojo, Nodoka was holding a small piece of paper with various locations written on it. "Nabiki Chan, what is this?" She asked, looking it over.

"Those are the locations of recent strange events around Tokyo. I figured Ranma wouldn't leave the city, so I called a few friends. If I were you, I'd check out the construction worker in Minato first." Nabiki said, handing Nodoka a small envelope.

"What's this?" Nodoka asked, fingering it.

"Money's a bit tight right now, but it's some of what I owe Ranma… for some things he did for me." Nabiki said, deciding to omit that the money was for the photos of Ranma's girl side that she had sold at school. The reason why Nabiki and Nodoka were currently sitting in Nabiki's room and planning a trip to go find Ranma was because of a series of events that had occurred earlier.

Nodoka had given Genma his copy of the divorce decree, and Genma, even in his sickened state, had… disagreed with it. He had tried to tell her, as far as she could tell through his wired shut mouth, that she was his wife and that she should obey him. They'd find the "Worthless boy" eventually, and she shouldn't worry. This wouldn't have made any difference, accept that Soun had sided with his old friend on the matter. He had said that if Nodoka went through with the divorce of Genma that he wouldn't allow her on his property, and she had gone ahead anyways. The problem was that the Saotome home was TECHNICALLY Genma's property, and since she was barred from the Tendo compound she was effectively homeless.

"Thank you Nabiki…" Nodoka said, some tears coming from her eyes. She had known that divorcing Genma would cause problems, but throwing her out on the street was NOT supposed to be one of them. She just hadn't thought Soun would have enough spine to do what he had, even with all three daughters' strenuous opposition. Soun would get his though, as Akane had volunteered to TRY and wreck his and Genma's meals if he went through with this. If Akane's normal cooking was bad, what would happen when she was TRYING?

As Nodoka walked down the stairs from Nabiki's room, she grabbed a wooden bokken that Akane had offered her to "Beat off the perverts." The Saotome Honour blade was part of Genma's family, and she had had to leave it behind.

"Take care aunty…" Akane said, sniffling slightly.

"Oh yes. Good luck!" Kasumi said, her usual smile cracking to be replaced by a glare at her father from time to time.

With one look back at the three sisters, Nodoka Kamiya walked out of the front door in search of her son.

HR

Haruka gulped nervously as she walked around the corner leading to the front entrance of the Metro centre. Seeing Ranko standing there, leaning against a wall, she sighed in relief. "Hello, Ranko!" She called, walking over to the short redhead.

"Hi Haruka." Ranma said in a slightly nervous tone, before continuing, "Ranma said you wanted to talk to me?"

"Um… Yeah." Haruka said, looking very nervous for a second. "Can we go somewhere private to talk about this? It's kind of personal." She glanced around, seeing several of the other bikers hanging around. Them knowing about her was ALL she needed.

Shrugging, Ranma nodded. This was getting very close to what she had learned from her dealings with the Fiancées was "Date territory," but she just shrugged it off for the moment. Allowing Haruka to lead her to a nearby park, of which there seemed to be a large amount in this ward, Juuban especially, The two stopped in a copse of trees.

"What was it you wanted to tell me, Haruka?" Ranma asked, a tinge of impatience entering her voice.

Haruka shrugged. May as well get it out of the way all at once. "I'm a cross dresser."

"Huh?" Ranma said, looking at Haruka. Sure, he was a bit Bishonen, but he wasn't cross dressing. "I don't understand."

"Ranko, I'm a girl. I dress like a boy so that I can race." Haruka said, wondering exactly how dense Ranko was. She had to be at least a bit suspicious. There was no way Haruka was THAT good at cross dressing, was she?

Ranma blinked slowly for a second before her eyes glazed and she did an aura scan of Haruka. Really, she should have done this on the first day of their training, but she had been a bit distracted by having fun. Ranma raised an eyebrow as she saw Haruka's aura. It actually looked a lot like hers. The Male and Female parts of the aura were almost at a perfect match, but looking closely she saw that the female side was slightly more powerful. This convinced her. A person cannot have more Chi of the opposite sex than their own, or really bad things happened. Well, not bad exactly but just weird. It was why Ranma's aura had eventually shifted itself to have an almost equal amount of male and Female Chi, to keep her from going crazy, or developing multiple personalities during the gender changes that were caused by the curse. This also brought a bit of acceptance of the curse as a side benefit.

"…Ko! Are you okay?" Haruka asked, snapping her fingers in front of Ranma's face. Ranma had apparently drifted off into thought there, or she had taken too long to read the aura.

Haruka was worried as she saw Ranko's eyes glaze over and her eyebrows start twitching. Was she going insane or something? After a few minutes, she finally got tired of waiting and snapped her fingers in front of Ranko's face, causing her to snap out of it.

"Sorry Haruka… I was just reading your aura." Ranma said, shaking her head. "So you're really a girl, huh?" She asked, although she now already knew the answer.

Haruka nodded. 'Reading my aura? I guess I'll ask her later.' She thought, before noticing a strange look come over Ranko's face.

"That was a big secret of yours, eh?" Ranma asked, feeling slightly bad that Haruka would come out with this, apparently trusting her with something really important while she kept her curse hidden.

"Well, yeah. I don't think they'd let me race if they knew, and it's all that's keeping me fed." Haruka said, wondering what the look on Ranko's face was about. She was also wondering what Ranko's reaction to her true gender would be. She had kind of been hoping for an instant earth shattering kiss, but she had seriously doubted that.

"I'll be right back!" Ranma said, before dashing off. Right before Haruka was going to go after her, Ranma reappeared with a cup of what looked to be steaming water in her hands.

"What's that for?" Haruka wondered, going on guard in case Ranko threw it at her.

"It's to show you my secret…" Ranma said, then smirked. "Well, I don't have as much of a problem with you flirting with me anymore, but I don't know if you're gunna want to after I show ya this." Saying this, she tipped the water over her head, it triggering the Jusenkyo curse as soon as it touched the top of her head.

For a second, Haruka saw an image of the dream she had had the night before, before she did a very.. ladylike thing and promptly fainted.

Ranma rushed forward and grabbed Haruka, looking down at her in confusion. He had gotten a lot of responses to the curse before, but never that one. Shrugging, he headed back towards his and Haruka's apartment building.

END!


	9. Chapter 8, Revelations

Chapter 8, Revelations.

As Ranma was lifting up Haruka to carry her back to his apartment, Sailor Pluto was watching the scene through the time gates. She had been tracking Haruka, in hopes that she would run into the elusive Neptunian heart crystal carrier, for the past half day or so and her efforts had now paid off. The problem was, she REALLY hadn't been expecting what she had seen. Sure, she had seen a few men change into women in her lifetime, and vise versa, but one of them being one of this solar system's Senshi was rather unexpected. Also, the method of transformation, apparently water based, may have an… interesting interaction with the powers of Neptune.

One good thing was that this boy, or was it girl? Had met Haruka already, and Pluto wouldn't have to barge into their lives from nowhere like she usually did. Maybe with a bit of preparation, she could avoid the whole cold and heartless bitch outers phenomenon that occurred when ten thousand years worth of a warrior's memories were shoved into one's head in less than twenty seconds. It had caused them to go into full life or death battle mode several times when it wasn't warranted in the main line, and had ultimately cost them a good deal of trust with the inner senshi, not to mention a fare amount of distress. With a new plan to handle the outers a bit more gently than her mainstream counterparts, Pluto teleported out of the chamber of the time gates and back to her apartment. She had some calls to make.

HR

Ranma watched over Haruka's sleeping form, in the main room of his apartment. He didn't know where Haruka's apartment keys were, and the woman hadn't woken up yet. Ranma wondered why she had fainted, as he had never gotten that particular reaction to his curse before, and he was really worried about her. Another worry on his mind was the curse, and how she would react to it. He threw a sidelong glance at a small glass of water and kettle that sat next to the bed, just in case he had to explain.

Haruka groaned as she came to consciousness, feeling a damp rag on her forehead and an unfamiliar bed under her body. Cracking her eyes open, she saw Ranma's face hovering over her, looking down concernedly. She had had the strangest dream. She had gone to talk to Ranko, and Ranko had pored water over her head and turned into Ranma. Come to think of it, she had had two dreams like that recently. She must REALLY like both Ranko and Ranma in order to have a dream like that. Wait a second. Ranma was looking down at her concernedly, she had a cold cloth on her head. She said the only thing that came to mind. "That wasn't a dream, was it?"

Ranma blinked. That wasn't the first thing he had expected Haruka to say, but he answered anyways. "You mean me changing from a girl to a guy?"

Haruka nodded as she sat up in the bed, taking a look around. She was in a rather small room, that looked like one of the smaller apartments in her apartment building. There wasn't much in it other than the bed she was laying on, a backpack and a hot plate. Ranma was there as well, of course. "Um, How did you change like that, then?" She asked, that being the only thing she could think to say at the moment.

Ranma sighed. "Well, I've got this curse. I turn into a girl when I'm hit with cold water and back with hot water. I didn't wanna tell ya 'cuz most people who find out think I'm some sorta freak or pervert. I can understand if ya don't wanna train with or hang out with me anymore…" At the last line, he sounded really depressed. He had enjoyed the one training session that he had had with Haruka, and even the small conversations they had in the halls, or the attempts at pickup lines by Haruka at the elevator if Ranma happened to be in girl form were kind of pleasant, even if the latter had disturbed him slightly..

Haruka took Ranma's words in and thought about them. Ranko was really Ranma? Ranma was a guy, She liked girls. Actually, she was just more physically attracted to girls and Ranma wasn't really all that bad a guy. The curse was strange, and it was kind of a letdown that he was really a guy, but she thought that she could learn to deal with it, especially since he was reasonably good looking for a specimen of the male side of the species. Also, a curse like that HAD to bring it's shair of people who concidered Ranma a pervert, just as her own choice in dress and partners labeled her in the same way. Coming to a decision, Haruka spoke. "Hey, don't talk like that. I'm still going to learn from you. It may hurt like hell, but you're really effective at training… Besides, that girl side of yours is really cute, and I guess your guy side isn't that bad either."

Ranma's face turned a shade of red at Haruka's last two comments, but his mind lingered on the first. Ranma's training of Haruka HAD hurt… a lot. He would never have, knowingly, put a girl through that. "I'm sorry about the trainin. Guess I shoulda taken it easier on you…" He muttered, looking down again.

Haruka punched him in the arm. "Stop that! I can take one heck of a beating, and you know it." She said, remembering back to a comment Ranma had made on her being very good for a street brawler.

Ranma smirked. "I guess ya got a point." Then he laughed. "Why is it I always end up hangin around with such complete and total tomboys?"

Haruka chuckled as well. "Yep, 100 percent Tomboy right here." She said, pointing at her Male hairstyle and clothes.

"You really aren't all that freaked out by the curse, are you?" Ranma asked, looking serious all of a sudden.

Haruka shrugged. "Not really. It surprised me a lot, obviously." She said, blushing at the fact that she had fainted when she had first seen it, "But you seem to be taking me being a girl well, too."

"That's because I'm glad you're a girl…" Ranma said, before clamping his mouth shut and turning red.

"Is that so?" Haruka said, smirking slightly. "Well I'm glad you're half girl, too."

"Hey!" Ranma yelled, as Haruka left his apartment, laughing.

Ranma smiled slightly after Haruka had left. That had been a VERY strange discussion, and he had said some things that had mortally embarrassed him, but it had been kind of fun. Seeing that he had been watching over Haruka for quite some time, Ranma flopped down in his bed and pulled his covers over himself. The bed was still warm from Haruka's presence earlier, and the extra warmth lulled him to sleep faster.

HR

Late that night, Setsuna held two envelopes in her hand, walking down to a post office. Fingering the written addresses on the sides of the letters, she dropped them in a local post box, to be mailed to the two people they were meant for. With a slight satisfied smile, she walked back to her apartment, wondering what Ranma and Haruka's faces would look like when they found the letters in a couple of days.

HR

The next day, Foreman Carwell was sitting in his trailer, writing down some figures, when a knock came at the door. Putting down his pen, he called out to whoever was on the other side to come in.

Much to Mr. Carwell's surprise, he saw an older woman in a formal Kimono, carrying a bokuto in her hands. Somehow, the Bokken looked out of place, as if she was supposed to carry something else, but he had no idea what. "Can I help you Ma'am?" Carwell asked, sitting up to full attention in his chair.

The woman sat down in a chair across the desk from him and spoke. "Yes, I am looking for a martial artist who I heard was working on this construction project." The woman said, seemingly hopeful.

"A Martial artist?" Carwell thought, before something hit him. The boy who had worked on some of the exterior framework was a martial artist, or at least he had said he was. The way he had kept doing physically impossible things, Carwell was more inclined to believe that he was some sort of magic user. Yes, Carwell believed in mages. Ever since the Senshi had fought a Youma in the centre of his construction site a few months before, it would be kind of like denying that the sky was blue to deny that magic existed. Getting back to the topic, he began to speak slowly. "Yes, we had a martial artist working here a few days ago. He left for another job, though. I believe his name was Ranma."

"That's him." The kimono clad woman confirmed, nodding her head. "Can you tell me where he lives or where he is working?"

Carwell furrowed his brow. "Could you tell me why you need that sort of information? I'm not really allowed to just hand it out, you know. It's against government privacy regulations."

The woman looked down for a moment. "I'm his mother. I was trying to find him because he left home." She said, and Carwell could hear the shakiness in her voice that was no doubt caused by tears.

Carwell dug around in his desk, coming out with a card with the Metro centre's address written on it. "He works here. I can't give you his address, at least not without proof that you're his mother, but I can give you this."

"Thank you." Nodoka said, taking the card and getting up.

As Nodoka was about to leave Mr. Carwell's office, he spoke up again. "Good luck." Nodoka smiled at him before walking out of the trailer and onto the noisy construction site. She was one step closer to finding her son. She had, as Nabiki had suggested, checked this lead first and it had paid off. She still had enough money in Nabiki's envelope for a few days in a hotel, and she hoped that she could find her son by then, because if she couldn't she would literally be out on the street until she could restore connections with her clan, which had cast her out upon her marriage to Genma. She hadn't understood this when she had married, but she was beginning to now.

HR

In Nerima, in front of Furinkan high, Tatewaki Kuno stood, holding a bokuto and waiting for Akane Tendo to come running into his arms. He knew that the foul sorcerer's spell just HAD to be broken today. Surely his magnificence had overwhelmed it by now, and Akane would run into his… BAM

Akane looked back at the toppling form of Kuno as she ran into the school, smiling as she saw that the school yard was empty of any other perverts. Nabiki had managed to get rid of most of them with subtle threats of blackmail exposure, and the rest had been easy enough to deal with in other ways. The only one who wouldn't, as usual, learn was Kuno, who kept insisting that Ranma had an evil spell on Akane and that she really loved him. Yeah, right. Of course Ranma was a real sore spot for Akane now a days, and the constant insulting of him got Akane to beat Kuno even worse, causing him to have been checked into the hospital twice in the last week.

Fortunately, Akane's little revenge plan against her father had worked like a charm, and he cowered whenever meal times came around now. She couldn't believe that He could have done something like… THAT to poor aunty Nodoka, and after her son had left her, too.

Of course, the entire ward had been falling apart ever since Ranma left. Ukyo and the Amazons had left, Kodachi had apparently COMPLETELY flipped and the Tendo family was falling to pieces. The only person who was seemingly not affected was Nabiki, but you could never tell with her. With a sigh, Akane headed to Ms. Hinako's class, hoping that the little teacher wouldn't drain her today.

Back in the front school yard of Furinkan, Tatewaki Kuno lay on the ground, twitching occasionally. That was IT! He had to go and destroy the sorcerer in order to lift the spell he had on Akane and the Pigtailed girl. Banishing him in a titanic battle apparently wasn't enough. Maybe he would even find his missing Pigtailed goddess when he found the fiend, no doubt the poor girl was being tortured by Ranma for his sick amusement right now! Jumping to his feet, Kuno winced as he felt one of his legs twist under him, but regained his balance as he ran off towards the Kuno estate.

HR

Meanwhile, somewhere which is lost to geography, Sailor moon was holding the Ginzuishou, willing all of her power into it. Standing next to her, in a determined stance, her future daughter held her own copy of the powerful gem, the two glowing with equal intensity.

On the other side of this wall of glowing magic, the creature called "Wiseman" battered at the crystal's light. "I won't be defeated!" He roared, directing more and more of his dark crystal's energy against his opponents.

"You… You're wrong!" Usagi yelled, her crystal's power increasing as her willpower did. As the evil force tried to draw even more strength from his own well of power, he tapped it out, hitting the end of his reserves.

"No!" Wiseman yelled, the white light of the crystal's energy washing over him, destroying his tainted soul a piece at a time. As the light washed away, Wiseman had disappeared and Sailor moon collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily. Looking next to her, she saw Chibi-Usa, looking at her in relief before she lunged at her, the two meeting in a bear hug.

"We did it…" Sailor moon whispered, happily hugging the little girl.

Unknown to the two rabbit girls, a small part of Wiseman's black energy had survived the onslaught of the silver crystal, and used the last of it's power to return to the future, and to the only reserve of dark power that was left. Wiseman knew that he was defeated for now, but he would be back again, with his final strategy, and Crystal Tokyo WOULD fall!

END.


	10. Chapter 9, The party

Chapter 9. The party.

Haruka looked at her boss in astonishment. "You want me to do what?" She asked, blinking rapidly.

"I don't know why it's such a big deal." The man said, exasperated. "All I want you to do is come to the victory party tomorrow night if you win the race. You skipped the last one, and the sponsors want to see our new number one racer."

"But I told you, I hate those things." Haruka protested, remembering the large parties that were usually rather boring, and where she had to make a "Good impression" on the sponsors.

"Look. It's just this once." The older man said, pleading. "I've got a line on a really good sponsor for you and she's going to be at the party. Just trust me, okay?"

Haruka sighed resignedly. "All right, all right. Anything special I have to do?"

The boss shrugged. "Not really. Hey, why don't you bring a girl along and make a date of it? In fact, that would probably make a better impression than you coming alone."

"Huh?" Haruka said, before she got an idea and a slow smile spread across her face. "Thanks boss… I think I will." She said, before leaving the room.

"I wonder what that smile was about?" Haruka's boss wondered, before going back to filling out paper work.

At around five thirty that night, Haruka knocked on Ranma's apartment door. "Hey Haruka." Ranma said, opening it.

"Hey Ranma. I have a favour to ask you." Haruka said.

"And that is?" Ranma asked, knowing that he probably wouldn't like this.

"Will you go to a party with me tomorrow night?" Haruka said, bluntly.

Ranma's eyes widened. Was Haruka asking him out on a date? "Um… I guess so. Where is it?" He asked, blinking in surprise.

"Well, there's this post race party after every race, and I need to go this time. I thought having someone around to go with would make it more tolerable."

Ranma's eyes narrowed. "A post race party, but that means you'll be dressing as a guy, right? We can't go together."

Haruka pulled a bottle of water out from behind her back and smiled, as sweetly as her male appearance would allow, at him. "Sure we can!"

"What? No way!" Ranma said, backing away from the bottle of water.

"Please?" Haruka asked, almost begging. "It's going to be unbearable without someone going with me and I HAVE to go. It'd be a really big favour."

Ranma looked contemplative for a moment before a Nabiki special smirk crossed his face. "All right. I'll do it, on one condition."

"Great!" Haruka said, smiling happily and passing Ranma the bottle of water.

"You ain't gunna ask what the condition is?" Ranma asked, smirking.

"Nah. I'm fine with whatever you want if you go on this date with me." Haruka said, happily.

"All right, I guess I'll go. When is it?" Ranma asked, having to restrain himself from giving a big evil grin at Haruka's last comment.

"Well, the race starts at four and the celebration is around seven. You may as well go to the race too, 'cuz I can get you in for free." Haruka explained, pulling a "Pass for one" card out of her pocket.

"All right. I'll be there." Ranma said, before closing his bedroom door and going back to his recently interrupted meal, sticking the card on top of his pack so he wouldn't forget about it.

HR

At the same time, in the front office of the Metro Centre, Nodoka was talking to a receptionist. "Oh, that cute maintenance man that started yesterday?" The girl said, blushing. "He went home about two hours ago."

"Oh…" Nodoka said, disappointed but also noticing how the girl drooled over her son. 'My son is SO manly!' She thought, before she mentally rebuked herself for doing it. Her son WASN'T really all that manly, even though he was rather attractive, but it didn't matter. She still wanted to see him.

Hearing the disappointment in the woman's voice, the receptionist spoke again. "Well, He'll be here tomorrow morning to set up for the big race, and you could ask Mr. Tenoh about him. I hear he's training him and that they live in the same building."

"Mr. Tenoh?" Nodoka asked, curiously. "Yeah. He's one of our motocross racers." The girl explained, pointing at a picture of Haruka standing next to a bike.

"Thank you." Nodoka said, before walking out of the front doors and towards her hotel. Only one more day, and she should be able to see her son again.

The next morning, Ranma opened his eyes and yawned expansively before getting up and reaching for his pack in order to dig out some food for breakfast. Seeing the card on top of the pack, he grumbled as he realized what it was for. Putting it into his pocket, He got dressed and cooked a small bowl of rice for breakfast. It was a good thing that he wasn't fighting people every day like he did in Nerima, or he would be starving himself with this little food. As it was, he didn't need to worry about his Chi Reserves running out and he didn't have to eat nearly as much.

As He packed a special duffle bag for tonight, Ranma grumbled to himself and wondered how in the world he had been talked into THIS. Remembering Haruka's promise, a small smile spread across his face.

That morning looked rather a lot like an old bugs bunny cartoon. Ranma would go somewhere to do something, complete his task and leave just as Nodoka entered the area. One didn't manage to catch sight of the other all day, and there was a noticeable twitch in Nodoka's eye by the end of the day.

At about three forty five, Ranma slipped into the washroom near the front entrance and used the supplies in the gym bag that he had brought along. He had "Gone girl" many times before, and was becoming rather good at quick changes. About three minutes later, a short, busty redhead exited the men's bathroom, causing a nearby guy to trip and fall to the floor. Ranma grinned. Even if she didn't like guys hitting on her, a little bit of feminine pride had snuck into her as her time with the curse had increased, and she couldn't help but get a bit of a jolt at that kind of reaction.

Slipping her card into the pass reader at the front entrance to the race track, Ranma walked in and looked around for a seat. Finding one, she sat in it and began to watch the race. It was an endurance run, about two hours long and on a very large portion of the track. The dirt track coiled like a snake in order to get that much road into such a small area, and Ranma began to understand why Haruka had such good reflexes as she took insanely tight turns at almost full speed.

On the other side of the arena, Nodoka watched as well. She wasn't really all that interested in motorbike racing, but she hadn't been able to get a lead on her son all day and this Mr. Tenoh person was her last hope. He was quite a good racer, at least by the looks of it. He was in first place and second was about twenty bike lengths behind him. She had fallen asleep after the first half an hour of racing, but woke up as the crowd burst into applause. She blinked as she saw a three set of stands in the middle of the race area, Mr. Tenoh standing on the Central one, which was marked "FIRST" in bold lettering.

About five minutes later, Haruka walked out of the "Racers only" area to see someone standing and waiting for her. "Great race, Haruka!" Ranma said, running up to her.

Haruka's eyes almost popped out of her skull as she caught sight of Ranma. She was wearing a green dress, earrings, probably clip on but she couldn't tell, in her ears and her red hair falling down her back without a pigtail. She wasn't wearing any make-up, but really didn't need it. "H… Hi Ranma." Haruka said, almost speechless.

"What's wrong?" Ranma asked, noticing Haruka's hanging jaw.

"Nothing." Haruka said, shaking her head. "I just didn't expect you to look so… beautiful!"

Ranma smirked. "When I dress like a girl, I do it right, ne?"

Haruka just nodded dumbly, before doing something that surprised even herself. She walked forward, embraced Ranma and kissed her full on the lips. "Gmph!" Was all Ranma could say, her eyes widening in surprise. She struggled for a second, but then began to co-operate.

"Hey Tenoh! Get a room!" Someone yelled, causing Haruka and Ranma to break apart. They both flushed red as they saw one of Haruka's fellow racers giving her the victory sign.

'I can't believe I did that.' Haruka thought, looking sidelong at Ranma. 'I wonder what it would feel like with her as a guy? Bad Haruka!' She thought, trying to get those thoughts out of her mind.

'Why did she do that?' Ranma thought, openly staring at Haruka. Bringing a hand up to her lips, she touched them softly. 'It felt really nice, though. The first kiss I've ever had where I was willing to kiss back.' A small, silly smile spread across her face. 'I wonder what it'll be like when I'm a guy?'

The thoughts of the two girls were interrupted by the sound of an older man clearing his throat. "Sorry to interrupt you, but I wanted to meet your girlfriend here." The man said, walking up to Haruka.

"Uh.. This is Ran-"

"Ko." Ranma interrupted, smoothly. "Nice to meet you."

"Hello Ranko san. Are you related to our new maintenance man?" The boss asked, looking at her curiously.

"Yes. He's my brother." Ranma said, having decided on a permanent alias for her girl side. After all, Ranma's sister would be expected to know most of the stuff he knew, as well as be in places where he would.

"Well, I'm Mr. Shinyo, his boss. Nice to meet you." The man said, before turning to Haruka. "Quite a catch you got there, Tenoh."

Haruka blushed. "Th… Thank you, sir."

Shinyo chuckled as he walked off. "Make sure to bring her to the party!" He called over his shoulder, leaving for the administrative offices.

The after race locker room festivities had taken a long time and there was only an hour until the big party, so Haruka turned to Ranma. "Do you want to go out and eat or something before we go to the party?"

Ranma grinned happily. "Food, sure." She said, and the two headed for a nearby restaurant. Down the hall from them, Nodoka stood, a look of shock on her face. The girl who she had seen kissing Tenoh san was her child, she was sure of that. Very few people had flaming red hair like that, and fewer still were that short and well built. Nodoka hadn't known that Ranma had really liked men. It had hit her right out of nowhere. Then again, with a curse like the one he had, it was a distinct possibility which she should have thought about. She knew that she had no right to dictate what Ranma should do ever since he had gone Ronin, and that the Seppuku pledge was now a distant memory, but could she really tolerate seeing her child in a relationship with a man? Her thoughts confused, Nodoka staggered down the hall, wondering if she should just give up now and go find her family. Things had just gotten so… confusing.

In the Restaurant, Ranma was happily munching on a plate of Tako Sushi, Haruka across from her with some sort of fish that she couldn't identify. This was a very fancy restaurant, and Ranma couldn't identify most of the foods. She decided to keep with what she knew. Taking another forkful of the food into her mouth, she chewed it slowly, actually enjoying it's flavour. She had really enjoyed this particular part of being away from Nerima. The fact that her father wasn't always stealing her food and that she could enjoy it, that is.

"So What are we supposed ta do at this party?" Ranma asked, out of the blue.

"Just hang around and talk." Haruka explained. "It's supposed to be a place for race sponsors to meet the racers and see if they want anything to do with them. I have to go because I don't have any major sponsors yet."

"Um… Okay." Ranma said, blinking. She wasn't exactly very up on the business world, so let it pass. "I think we gotta go soon, though." She said, looking at the clock at the back of the restaurant. "Yeah, you're right." Haruka said, the two of them getting up and Haruka leaving some money on the table to pay for the food. "The gentleman must pay the bill, right?" She said, grinning at Ranma.

Ranma tried to glare back, really she did, but she just ended up laughing. "C'mon." She said, grabbing Haruka and pulling her out of the restaurant.

Later that night, Ranma stood in the middle of a large party hall, holding a drink of what looked like clear alcohol but was really water. She, in girl form especially, couldn't hold her liquor very well, and generally stayed away from the stuff. Looking around for something to do, she saw Haruka standing and talking to a green haired woman in a business suit. For a second, she felt the stirrings of something that felt kind of like anger, but slightly different. Squashing this strange and downright stupid feeling, Ranma walked over and got into range to hear the conversation the two were having.

"So you're saying that Meiou industries wants to sponsor me?" Haruka asked, a surprised look on her face.

"That's right." Setsuna said, taking a sip from her glass of Champaign. "We will send you a letter outlining our full terms some time tomorrow. We are very interested in you, Mr. Tenoh." For some reason, the woman had a touch of Humour in her voice as she said the last two words.

"Hey Haruka, what's goin on?" Ranma asked, as she walked up to the two.

"Nothing much, Ranko." She said, using Ranma's girl side's fake name. "I was just talking to this woman about something."

"Ah, you must be Mr. Tenoh's girlfriend." Setsuna said, the small thread of humour going all throughout this sentence. Ranma blushed slightly and nodded. Being called anyone's "Girlfriend" would normally cause her to flatten the offender, but this was a special case. "Well, it was nice to meet you two." Setsuna said, walking into the crowd. Ranma could have sworn that her Chi signature just disappeared after she got out of their sight, but she dismissed it as unimportant.

Later that night, Ranma and Haruka were walking home, Ranma with a slightly angry look on her face and Haruka with an apologetic one. "I'm sorry about that. I didn't know he would do that." Haruka said, remembering back to one of her fellow racers groping Ranma's breast during the party.

Ranma looked over at Haruka and the anger disappeared. "I ain't angry at you. I'm angry that I couldn't get more distance." She explained, Remembering what she had done to the offender.

Haruka chuckled. "Where did you get that mallet, anyways?"

Ranma looked sheepish. "My Ex-Fiancée taught me the trick… by using it on me." She explained.

'Ex-Fiancée?' Haruka thought, but just let it slide.

As the two went into the apartment, Haruka grabbed Ranma and kissed her again, as she had done when she had first left the racers only area.

"I'd better get back up to my apartment." Ranma said, pulling away. "Tonight was kinda fun, but I think I wanna turn back to a guy."

Haruka sighed in mock disappointment. "All right. See you tomorrow, okay?"

"sure." Ranma said, as she and Haruka headed upstairs.

As The two parted, not even Ranma's trained Chi senses noticed the fact that they were being watched. From the Time gates, Pluto smiled.

END!


	11. Chapter 10, Weebee’s longest chapter

Chapter 10, Weebee's longest chapter.

The next day, Ranma grumbled as he walked home from the Metro centre. It had turned out that he wasn't needed today, as the place was closing down on Friday to get the race stuff taken out. Walking into the front lobby of his apartment building, He saw Haruka, her face covered with grease, walking into the elevator. "Hold that, would ya?" He called, Running for it. Haruka stuck out a hand, preventing the door from closing, and smiled as she saw Ranma coming.

"Hi Ranma. You're back early." She said, as the pigtailed martial artist stepped into the elevator.

Ranma shrugged. "Got sent home early." He explained, turning and facing the door as Haruka pressed the button to go to their floor.

Haruka just nodded, and the two sat in silence until Ranma spoke up again. "Well, if we ain't doing anything else today, wanna spar or something?"

Haruka shrugged. "I guess that'd be all right. I have to change clothes first, though." She said, gesturing at the grease stained set of cover-alls she was wearing. As the elevator arrived on their floor, the two walked off and Ranma stood next to Haruka's apartment door while she went inside.

A few minutes later, Haruka slowly edged the door open, looking embarrassed for some reason. Ranma wondered why she looked so embarrassed, until he caught sight of her. She was wearing a white blouse and dress pants, very obviously feminine clothing, and she had forgone rapping up her chest.

"Haruka?" Ranma asked, blinking.

"These were the last clothes I have, Okay? I have to do laundry some time." Haruka said, glaring at Ranma as if to say "If you laugh, I will kill you."

"Hey, that's okay. You look… cute." Ranma said, smiling at Haruka's glair.

She stopped dead for a second. She looked "cute?" She didn't know whether that was a compliment or an insult, so she just dismissed it and the two walked to the elevator and took it to the first floor.

About fifteen minutes later, Ranma and Haruka were standing in the middle of a park, getting ready to fight. Haruka made the first move, as Ranma almost always chose to wait out his opponents. She charged in with a brutal straight punch to Ranma's head, which he quickly dodged. Ranma came around with a sweep kick to her legs, but almost stopped half way through delivering it, his mind trying to stop him from fighting a girl for no reason. He quickly countered with the fact that he was training her, But Haruka used his distraction and slowed reaction to twist out of the way, grabbing him by the foot and throwing him. Ranma was surprised as he found himself flying through the air, but quickly turned to land on his feet.

'This ain't any ordinary girl…' Ranma decided, coming back in to continue the fight. Of course, without the slight flinch that had slowed him on his first attack, Ranma was fully capable of dancing around Haruka and delivering blows that she couldn't block, but he turned down his skill so that he didn't completely dominate her. After all, what was the fun in completely overpowering your opponent?

After about an our of sparring, followed by about two hours of Ranma teaching Haruka basic Saotome School Kata, Ranma's stomach growled loudly.

"Man, I'm hungry." Ranma said, looking down at his rather vocal stomach.

"Me too, I guess." Haruka said, looking at him.

"Wanna go to a restaurant or something to get something to eat?" Ranma asked, remembering a rumour he had heard about a new place opening in the Juuban shopping centre.

"I don't know…" Haruka said, uncertainly. She didn't really mind coming out to the park dressed to look like a girl, but going to a crowded restaurant? "I don't think I want to go like this." She said, gesturing at her body.

"Why not?" Ranma asked, looking confused.

"Well, I've been dressing as a guy for so long, dressing like a girl just feels kind of awkward, you know?" Haruka said, blushing a bit.

"I think I'm one of the very few guys who knows what you're talking about." Ranma said, before a glint appeared in his eye. "All right. I'm calling in my condition. I was gunna use it for training time, but I guess now's as good a time as any. You gotta go on a date with me, for lunch and the rest of the afternoon, and YOU'RE the girl."

Haruka's eyes widened. "Huh?" She asked, sputtering.

"C'mon. I did it for you yesterday. It's only fair, right?" Ranma said, reasonably.

Haruka opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to find some way to object, but finally just sighed and threw up her hands. "Fine. Where to, Ranma?"

"Let's go!" Ranma said, starting to run at what he knew was Haruka's top speed.

"Get back here!" Haruka called, running after him.

HR

At around the same time, In the Peking Duck, Mousse was sitting at the counter, staring out at the street in front of the shop's large windows. On the counter next to him, Cologne perched, relaxing. For some reason, The Peking Duck seemed to mostly attract the after school crowd, and during the day was usually very slow for them. Because of this, They were usually pretty bored in the mornings. It had been a good business week, a LOT of students coming by to eat Ramen here, and one girl in particular showing up every day. Her name was apparently Makoto, and she kept staring at Mousse strangely. Something that worried him was that she hadn't shown up yesterday, and he wondered why. There was also a rumour of an Okonomiyaki restaurant which was going to start out nearby, but if the cat Café could keep up with Ukchans, what other place could offer them any challenge?

As the elder and her student waited for customers, they heard the sounds of someone opening the door of the Café. turning to look, Mousse's eyes widened as he saw who stood in the doorway, a blonde haired girl standing behind him.

"Welcome to the Peking Duck!" Mousse said, automatically, as he stared in shock at Ranma.

"Mousse?" Ranma asked, blinking at the spectacled boy. "What're you doing here?"

"We could ask you the same thing, sonny boy." Cologne said, from her position next to Mousse.

"Gah! The old Ghoul!" Ranma yelled, only to be hit over the head by Cologne's staff.

"Do you know these people?" Haruka asked, as she looked over Ranma's shoulder to see Mousse and Cologne.

"Yeah, old friends… I think." Ranma said, glancing questioningly at Cologne.

She nodded. "Yes, Mousse and I have known Ranma there for quite a long time. As for what we are doing here, isn't it obvious? We're running a cafe."

Ranma shrugged and walked into the place. He looked around, seeing that there were a few tables scattered around, as well as a large counter with stools surrounding it in the middle of the room. "Well, if the food here's as good as it was at the Cat Café, you'll really like this place, Haruka." Ranma said, looking at Haruka, who had already taken a seat at the counter.

Cologne studied the girl who was sitting at the counter as Ranma slipped in next to her, and then she cackled. "How do you do it, sunny boy?" She asked, still cackling.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, looking at Cologne in confusion.

"First the Tendo girl, now a girl who has enough male Chi in her aura that she's either got a curse or she's a cross dresser." Cologne explained, smirking at Ranma.

Ranma blushed, and Haruka did as well when she figured out that the old woman had picked up her secret. "What does she mean "Male Chi?" Haruka asked, looking confused at Ranma.

"She means that you've got a lot of male life force." Ranma explained. "Chi studies ain't taught to students until way later in training then you are now, but I'll teach ya about it eventually."

"You are training the girl?" Cologne asked, her ancient eyebrow raising. "I thought going Ronin from your clan would forbid you from practicing it's style."

Ranma shrugged. "Yeah, but can you honestly say I practice the Pure Saotome school anymore? I mean, I've got your Amazon fighting style mixed in, not to mention moves that I made up myself. I just figured that it was so different from pop's version that it didn't really matter anymore."

Cologne nodded solemnly, before Mousse took Ranma and Haruka's orders. After he had served them, he spoke. "Ranma, I haven't had a good fight since you left Nerima. How about a spar some time? I don't want to get rusty."

Ranma blinked. Mousse, the blind berserker of Nerima, was ASKING for a spar? Shaking off his impending sense of unreality, Ranma nodded. "How about on Sunday?" He asked, looking over to Haruka. "I got Haruka's morning training in this morning, so I can fight you Sunday morning."

"Sounds good." Mousse said, picking up Ranma's now empty plate and slipping it into his subspace pocket.

After Haruka had finished her meal as well, the two said their goodbyes to the two Amazons and headed out to the city streets. A little bit down the block, intending to come to the shopping district to take her mind off of her child, Nodoka saw her son, in male form, walking in the opposite direction with a blonde haired person. For a second she thought that it was Mr. Tenoh, but when the person turned slightly to talk to Ranma, it was quite evident that it was female. It did, however, have the exact same face as the Motocross racer that she had seen kissing her son, daughter, whatever! The night before. Nodoka was even more confused now. Was Tenoh san really a girl? That would make more sense than her son suddenly liking men, but why did she dress as a man? Maybe she was cursed to turn into a man, or more disturbing, he was cursed to turn into a woman? Deciding that she was a little too rattled to keep her equilibrium around her son today, Nodoka didn't decide to call after Ranma, and decided to wait to see him tomorrow.

Later that day, Ranma and Haruka walked out of a movie theatre, rubbing their eyes. They had been in the theatre for about two hours, and the light did a good job of blinding them. "That was pretty good." Ranma said, smiling at Haruka.

"Yeah. Bruce Lee movies usually are." She said, grinning back. Both of them, of course, were action movie fans, as far as they were fans of any type of movie, at least.

"Going on a date with a tomboy definitely has it's advantages." Ranma said, half expecting an angry yell for his comment. Haruka just laughed.

HR

As Ranma and Haruka stood in front of the apartment building, Ranma asked, "So how did you like it?"

Haruka shrugged. "it'll take a bit of getting used to, I guess, but it was tolerable." Then she got a big grin. "You get to be the girl next time, got it?"

"You know how strange that comment would sound if anyone heard it?" Ranma asked, before laughing. "All right. We'll take turns, okay?"

"All right." Haruka said, and then a strange look came across her face. 'Well, I've come this far. I may as well try it.' She thought, before grabbing Ranma's face in her hands and pulling it forward, her being about the same height as his male form.

As Ranma was about to exclaim in surprise, Haruka kissed him right on the lips. The two stiffened for a moment, before tentatively continuing. A few seconds later, they broke apart, both wearing strange looks. Ranma's was a kind of happy stupefaction while Haruka's was surprise. "That wasn't half bad…" She muttered, staring at Ranma. He just nodded slightly, dazed. Sighing, Haruka grabbed him and dragged him into the building.

"Huh?" Haruka asked, as she came into the main lobby of the apartment building. Letting go of Ranma's hand, she walked over to the mail boxes and looked in. "We both have a letter.." She said, getting her key out and reading hers. Her eyes popped wide as she read it. "Ranma, I think you should get yours." She said, sounding slightly awed.

Snapping out of his slightly stupefied state, Ranma opened his own mail box and extracted the letter, reading it.

To, Ranma (No last name.)

From, Infinity Academy admissions staff.

Your admission to the high school program of Infinity Academy has been approved, pending your receipt of this letter. Your forms and records have placed you in the second year, in the industrial arts program of our high school system. We thank you for applying and hope that you have a pleasant experience at our school starting this year. Please note that due to your slightly low scores, it is recommended that you take a two month catch up program, but this is not necessary. During your enrolment in the school, you will be staying in an off campus house with a maximum of three other people.

Special note. Your application form was submitted by one "Setsuna Meiou," and you were given a special scholarship for your high school and college courses from "Meiou industries, LTD."

Ranma lowered the letter, his mouth wide in shock. "Does yours say what mine does?" He asked, handing Haruka his letter.

She quickly scanned it. "Not exactly. Mine says that I need to go there in order to get the sponsorship from her company, but she'll pay for it."

"How the heck did she manage to do this? I mean, she didn't even hear my real name at the party last night, and there's no way she could have gotten all of this together in one day." Ranma said, taking back the letter and looking it over.

"I don't know." Haruka shrugged. "Do you want to do it?"

"I don't know. It would be a lot easier to get work if I had a college education, and it sounds like they're payin for it, but this sounds too good to be true." Ranma said, shaking his head.

"Well, I'm seriously thinking about it. I mean, that's where I originally wanted to go in the first place, and this is too good an offer to pass up." Haruka said, looking at her own letter.

The two walked into the elevator, many things on their minds, not the least of which was the letter, and the kiss that they had had in front of the building.

Part 2

Ranma lay on his bed, staring at the letter in his hands. The contents were a lot to think about. He would be able to go back to school, an unpleasant ordeal that he knew he needed in later life, and would be paid right through until college. Also, the subject that he would be studying caught his interest. He didn't know why, but he had really liked his job on the construction site, and doing that for the rest of his life, along with his martial arts, didn't seem that bad. The one thing that was holding him back was where this letter had come from. He had only met the woman who had signed and submitted his scholarship yesterday, and he had even given her a fake name. How had she found out it was him, and more importantly, why was she doing this. He supposed that he could understand her doing it for Haruka, after all having a person who's technically employed by you be educated is always a good thing, but him? Beginning to get a headache, Ranma dropped the letter to the side of his bed and put his head on the pillow, deciding to sleep on it.

HR

One room over, Haruka was looking at her own letter and wondering exactly HOW the woman had managed to get it to her this fast. She knew of Meiou industries, a large manufacturing company that was apparently run by a very reclusive woman who lived in an apartment around here, but she didn't think they were THAT powerful. Also, Ranma's comments troubled her. She hoped that he would decide to go if she did, as having him around would be… enjoyable. Like Ranma before her, she put the letter on the table next to her considerably softer bed and fell asleep, deciding not to worry about it.

HR

The next day, Nodoka stood in front of a mirror in her small hotel room, looking herself over. She was going to see her son today, no matter what happened. She had been foolish to wait this long. Straightening the kimono she wore, she put the bokken in it's place and walked through the door. Something still bothered her about carrying only a bokuto, but she couldn't really do anything about it so she didn't bother to try. Since she still couldn't go to Ranma's home, not knowing the address was a good way to stop that, She headed down to the metro centre again. She just hoped her son worked on Fridays.

Walking up to the front doors, Nodoka pushed on them… and found them locked. She almost screamed, but just resorted to banging on the glass. A few seconds later, the receptionist of a few days before came out and answered the doors. "Oh, it's that woman from before. Nodoka something?" The girl said, looking at her.

"Yes. I've come to see my son here, is this facility closed?" Nodoka asked, holding her bokken tightly in it's bundle.

"Yes Ma'am. I'm afraid it is. Your son is inside today, but I am afraid I can't let you in."

"Why not?" Nodoka said, almost growling the words out.

"Well, it's the rules. No one's allowed in but the maintenance workers today. I'm sorry Ma'am." The girl said, looking down.

Nodoka was just about to yell at her that she needed to get in, when she realized that the girl was just doing her job and backed down. "All right. Thank you." She said, turning away.

The girl saw the disappointment in Nodoka's posture as she left, and called out. "Ma'am? Why don't you try coming back around three this afternoon. That's when the maintenance people get off work."

"Thank you. I'll do that." Nodoka said, walking off to find something to occupy her time.

HR

Ukyo stood back from the store front, her hands on her hips. "How's that look, sugar?" She asked, looking over at Konatsu.

"It looks very nice, Ukyo sama." Konatsu said, looking at the glass window with "Ucchan's" stenciled across it in fancy roman script. The place was a bit bigger than the restaurant in Nerima, a side effect of the amount of money that Ukyo had made there, and it had a much larger serving area.

"All right. Let's get to work!" Ukyo said, marching into the building. She missed the few friends she had made in Nerima, and especially Ranma, but her orders were orders and she had to follow them. She just decided to make the best of it. After a short time of Ukyo and Konatsu rapidly setting the place up, she hung a large "OPEN for first day of business! First customer gets it free for life!" sign on the front window and sat down at the counter.

About five minutes later, Ukyo heard the front door open and looked over to see who her first customer was. Her eyes popped wide open as she saw the form of Nodoka Saotome walking in, wearing a formal kimono, as always.

"Mrs. Saotome?" Ukyo asked, dropping her battle spatula onto the large grill in front of her.

"Hello Ukyo chan. I saw the sign and had to see if it was you." Nodoka said, walking over and sitting on a chair. "Can I get a small sea food okonomiyaki?"

"Right away m'am!" Ukyo said, getting the batter out. "So why are you here?" She said, poring a bit of it onto the grill.

"I am looking for Ranma." Nodoka said, "I have found out where he works, and I'm waiting until he gets off shift."

Ukyo dropped her spatula again, with a rather loud clang. "R… Ranma's here?" She asked, shaking slightly.

"Why, yes. What's wrong?" Nodoka asked, looking at Ukyo in confusion.

"Damn!" Ukyo said, slamming her hand down on the counter. "I was hoping that was just a rumour. Mrs. Saotome, DON'T tell me anything about where Ran-Chan is, and DON'T bring him around here." Her voice was trembling after that.

"Why would you want that? Aren't you and my son friends?" Nodoka asked, surprised.

Ukyo began to cry after that, and Konatsu explained. "Ukyo sama's father has told her that she must kill Ranma san. She's trying to appear as if she is doing what he asks while not really hurting Ranma San, but if she were to find out where he was then she would be forced by honour to attempt to take his life."

Nodoka stiffened. "What?" She asked, her hand going to her bokken hilt. "But Ranma is Ronin. Genma's dishonour no longer clings to him."

"My father doesn't care, Nodoka san." Ukyo said, wiping tears from her eyes. "And if I don't do what he wants, he has the power to throw me out of the clan. I won't be able to run a restaurant ever again if I'm Ronin."

"I see.." Nodoka said, her hand tightening on the hilt of the Bokken again. 'I should see what I can do for the poor girl.' She thought, wondering what had happened to the Kuonji patriarch's belief in honour. He had come to her home, seeking her husband and son, at one time, but now he seemed to have become driven by the need to protect his own Honour at the expense of everyone else's happiness. Nodoka's thoughts stopped right there. 'Protect his own honour at the expense of everyone's happiness…' She thought, her face going white. Just as she had.

"Mrs. Saotome, are you all right?" Ukyo said, snapping her fingers in front of Nodoka's face.

"I'm fine, Ukyo chan." Nodoka said, moving to her feet slightly unsteadily. "And please do not call me Mrs. Saotome. I divorced Genma a few days ago."

Ukyo grinned. "Glad to hear it. That fat bastard doesn't deserve you."

Nodoka frowned. 'Maybe he does.' She thought, before leaving Ukyo's new restaurant. She needed to find her son, now more than ever, and apologise. It was funny how the problems of others sometimes gave your own problems a new perspective.

HR

Ranma cracked his back as he walked out of the Metro centre at three that afternoon. He had actually had some fun stuff to do that day, and was enjoying his work. His good mood died a rather painful death as he saw someone he knew standing in front of the place. He felt an almost overwhelming mixture of emotions as he saw her. Happiness that she was there, anger at her for pulling her sword, fear that she'd pull it out again right there and ask him to commit seppuku again and sadness that she had turned on him in Nerima. To keep himself from just becoming an emotional wreck, he buried all of his emotions behind one of the thickest soul of ice shields he had ever used, and walked up to her. "What do you want?" He asked.

Nodoka winced at the coldness in her son's voice. It was as if all emotion had been drained from it, and his eyes bore almost no life. She shivered from just being in close proximity to him. "I… I just wanted to talk to you." She said, quavering slightly.

"Can we do it here, or is it private?" Ranma asked, still coldly.

"I'd rather talk somewhere private." Nodoka said, still slightly shaken up but recovering her composure slowly. She never knew that her son could be like this. Akane had described the "Soul of Ice" to her many times, but Nodoka didn't know if Ranma had ever used it this strongly. Unknown to her, he had only ever done it once, and that was against saffron.

Ranma wordlessly lead Nodoka down a few streets, until the two of them came to an apartment building. The blonde haired person who Nodoka had seen with her son yesterday waved at them, and Ranma waved back, his icy and unapproachable exterior fading for a second.

"Where're you going, Ranma?" The person asked, walking up to him.

"I'm goin to my apartment to talk to this woman." Ranma said, pointing at Nodoka.

"Who is she?" Haruka asked, looking the woman over.

"Nodoka Saotome." Ranma said, flatly, before leading the older woman into the apartment building.

'Where have I heard that name before?' Haruka thought, staring after the two. Dismissing it, she went back to her previous activity, getting her bike out of the garage so that she could race it.

Nodoka looked around as Ranma lead her into a small apartment, and offered her a chair. "Now, what do you want to talk about?" He asked, sitting on the bed across from the single chair, which he had only bought a couple of days ago.

"Ranma… I…" Nodoka started, almost losing her nerve. "I'm sorry."

Ranma's face actually showed a look of surprise and hope for a second, before he buried it. "Sorry about what?" He asked, keeping the hope he now felt out of his expression. When he had seen the look on his mother's face when he left the Tendo place, Ranma had thought that she would never give up on her rather strange view of honour, and had resigned himself to never seeing or speaking to her again. Maybe now, he would have a second chance with her.

"I'm sorry I let Genma take you away on that trip, I'm sorry you were forced to hide from me for months and… I'm sorry that I put my personal honour above my family's happiness." Nodoka said, beginning to cry. "I just… It was all I had for so long and I… I…" She broke down into full tears this time, and Ranma had to resist the urge to get up and comfort her. After she had regained her composure, she looked up. "Can you forgive me, my son? She asked, hopefully.

Ranma thought for a moment. The apology had sounded heartfelt, but how could he know that she wouldn't just start up the same stuff she had done before if he forgave her. Then, an idea came to him, and he decided to use it. "No."

Nodoka looked shocked. "N… No?" She asked, her eyes widening.

"I can't forgive a mother who'd willingly threaten to cut her own child's head off because he wasn't "Manly" enough… But I wouldn't mind having aunty Nodoka around again."

It took Nodoka a second or two to process what Ranma had said, and then her head shot up, a mixture of shock, happiness and disbelief on it. "Really?" She asked.

Ranma smiled. "Yeah. No problem, aunty Nodoka. Joining your family again would just start all of the crap all over again anyways, but I don't really want to just completely ignore you."

"Thank you Ranma. Thank you so much." Nodoka said, coming out of her chair and hugging her former son in a vice like glomp.

"Can't breath… need air…" Ranma choked, his face turning blue.

Nodoka laughed as she let go of him. Then, she looked around the apartment. "It's really too bad you've got such a small apartment, Ranma." She said.

"Huh? Why?" Ranma asked, looking at her in confusion.

"Well, I don't really have enough money to stay in a hotel for more than the next few days, and Tendo San kicked me out of the Dojo. It would have been nice if I could have killed two birds with one stone, and stayed with you." Nodoka said.

Ranma looked contemplative for a few minutes, before catching sight of a piece of paper that was poking out from next to his bed. Picking it up, he began to read and a small smile spread across his face. "I think I have an idea." He said, slowly.

HR

In the time gates, Pluto boggled. She had feared that she would have to do something to get Ranma to go to the school and move in with Haruka, but somehow the chaos in his life always seemed to guide him into doing things that would be beneficial to him. She wondered if there was some god of chaos smiling down upon him or something.

Shaking her head in disbelief, she dispelled the image from the gates of time and teleported into a rather large house. It was a definite change from the small apartment she normally lived in, and with Nodoka around she would have to be careful about where to teleport, but the place was nice.

HR

Somewhere in Juuban, Tatewaki Kuno walked down the street, Bokken in hand. He was going to find the Foul Sorcerer Saotome and the pigtailed girl, and he would vanquish the fiend, sending him to the deepest levels of hell. Striking a heroic pose, Kuno heard the sounds of some people fighting in the distance. "Ah, that must be the fiend now!" He said, running towards the fight. Kuno stopped in shocked aw when he saw what was going on. There were five lovely girls, battling some sort of large demon.

"I shall banish the demon to the depths of the hell from which it came!" Kuno yelled, charging at the monstrosity.

"Huh? What's that idiot doing?" Sailor Mars asked, seeing a sword wielding kendoist charging at a Youma.

"I don't know." Mercury said, her visor over her eyes and scanning the strange boy. "From what I'm getting on my visor, he is mentally unstable."

"Oh no! We have to help the poor guy!" Sailor Moon said, worried.

"Right!" The other senshi said, beginning their attacks. Just before they fired, the kendoist got close enough to the monster to slash it, causing it to turn at the barely felt tap and pick Kuno up by his shirt collar. Draining some of his energy, it threw him into a wall. A few seconds later, the senshi's attacks obliterated it.

"I HATE it when demons just appear." Usagi complained, as she glared at the spot where the monster had been. "I mean, we just defeated the enemy and this random Youma shows up."

Rei nodded in agreement. Even without a great energy drain scheme going on, Juuban seemed to be demon central, having at least one every two weeks.

"Shouldn't we check on that guy?" Minako asked, pointing at the rubble of the wall where Kuno had been thrown.

"I guess so." Usagi said, walking over and using her senshi strength to remove some of the stone.

As Kuno awoke, he saw a vision of loveliness staring down at him. She had bright blue eyes, as well as the most peculiar style of hair. It looked like a double set of pigtails with balls on top. 'She's so beautiful.' Kuno thought, sitting up in the rubble and too delusional to realize that he was very badly hurt. Taking the girl's hands, he clasped them with his own. "Tell me flower, what is your name?"

"I'm sailor moon." Usagi said, wondering why the guy had taken her hands. It would have seemed romantic if he didn't have that insane glint in his eyes.

"Well Sailor moon. My name is Tatewaki Kuno, the blue thunder of Furinkan high, and I would date with you!"

"Huh?" All five inner senshi asked, blinking slowly.

"Yes! I challenge you to a duel! If I defeat you, I may date you!" Kuno yelled, striking another pose.

"Sailor Moon blinked slowly as Kuno charged at her. The other inners, seeing their princess threatened, went into instant action. "Supreme Thunder!" Jupiter yelled, snagging Kuno.

"Burning Mandala!" Mars yelled, hitting Kuno as he flew into the air from Jupiter's blast.

"I fight… ON!" Kuno yelled, as he soared into the sky, fading into a pin prick on the horizon.

"That was weird." Sailor moon said, before the Senshi shrugged it off and walked away.

A little while later, Kuno was laying in a trash bin, muttering to himself. "the pigtailed girl, Akane Tendo or the meatball princess. The pigtailed girl, Akane Tendo or the meatball princess." We will leave this sad scene, knowing that Kuno has found yet another girl to obsess about.

END.


	12. Chapter 11, The decision

Well, here it is at last. The first new chapter of this fic in the last year and a half. Hopefully it will be the first of many, many more, but I've gotten smart enough not to promise anything. Also, I know I sound like a pathetic review seeker here, but at the moment I am… so please, please review?

Warning: Haruka does a bit of Ranma teasing here. It's not that bad, but she's not very subtle, basically due to her inexperience. Also, there's a kinda sappy scene between the Tendo sisters… I suck at doing emotional scenes…

Chapter 11, The decision.

Haruka poked her head out from under her bike as she heard the sound of the front door to the building opening, noticing that the formally dressed woman who had entered with Ranma was coming out, seeming a good deal happier than she had when she had entered. the blond re-entered the maze of components of her bike that littered the ground. Sometimes, she really missed the maintenance team that she had had while living with her parents. As it was, she had to do near constant small repairs on the bike, but dodging the bullet of marriage was worth it. As she continued to work, she finally noticed that there was something casting a shadow over her work area. Curiously, she poked her head back out, nearly hitting it against the leg of the formally dressed woman, who was staring down at her intently.

"Um… can I help you?" she asked, uncertainly.

Blushing slightly, Nodoka, formerly of the Saotome clan, finally had to deny or confirm one of her worries, as well as settle her curiosity. Trying to pick diplomatic words to ask her question, she finally realized that there wasn't any particularly nice way of saying it and asked, "I apologize for asking this, but are you a man or a woman?"

Haruka almost snickered. Truthfully, she had had very few people actually ask her this question, as she was usually good enough to fool people into thinking she was a male on a first, or even thorough, look over. "And why do you want to know?" She finally decided to ask, hoping that she could find out a bit about the mysterious woman.

"I am Ranma's… aunt." Nodoka said, her face breaking into a smile that was a mixture of happiness and regret. "I just wanted to know at least that about the person he is apparently dating."

Haruka almost laughed again. This was the weirdest version of the 'what are your intentions…' question she'd ever gotten. Finally, she decided to answer truthfully. "I'm a girl, but I'd ask you not to tell anyone that. It'd make it pretty hard for me to participate in any races." Her impulse to laugh grew harder to control as she saw Nodoka's expression of relief at her words. 'I wonder what she'd think if I told her that I originally wanted to go out with Ranma's girl form?' she thought, but decided not to say this aloud. She was about to ask a few questions of her own when she noticed that the woman was hurrying away. She contemplated calling after her, but decided that she would just ask Ranma what had gone on later. She had gotten a few answers already, as a member of his old family showing up would be a good reason for how he had been acting when he had first come home, and apparently their meeting had gone well enough.

HR

Nodoka left the grounds of Ranma's apartment building, a small smile on her face. While it was true that she didn't exactly have her son back, she could still see and talk to him, and it was evident that he still cared about her. Maybe the new fact that she could never openly claim Ranma as her son was the penance she had had to pay for the many mistakes she and Genma had made in raising the boy.

Another thing that was raising her spirits was that the person she had seen Ranma so closely associating with over the past week was, in fact, a female. Even if he was no longer her son, she wasn't sure if she could take the thought of him and another man doing… she shuddered. That Haruka though, she was so… unfeminine. Nodoka would have to do something in order to fix that problem, and then the girl would be perfect for her so… for Ranma.

As she headed back to her hotel, for one of the last few nights there, she couldn't help but put a bit of a spring into her step. Maybe her life could be rebuilt after the destruction that Genma, and even she herself, had brought upon it.

HR

In Nerima, Kasumi Tendo looked over the contents of the suitcase she had packed. It seemed that Nabiki was actually capable of squeezing money out of Tatewaki Kuno much more quickly than she had expected, the younger Tendo had said something about telling the blue thunder where his foul sorcerer was and Kasumi really hadn't wanted to know anymore, so here she was, packing for her first extended trip away from the Tendo Dojo since her mother had died. She was slightly worried about the house, but Nabiki had promised to take care of it, and so had Akane.

Snapping the latches on her bag closed, Kasumi hefted it. It was heavy, but not overly so, which was a good thing since she wouldn't have anyone to help her carry it. Nabiki wasn't any stronger than she was, and had warned her not to take Akane to help her, for some reason. She briefly wondered why Nabiki wouldn't want Akane going to Juuban, but dismissed it as she opened the door to her bedroom and walked down stares.

In the living room, her father was wailing about his baby girl leaving home, and the worthless panda was trying to comfort him from his static position near the Shogi board. With what, on other people, would have been a full fledged look of disgust, Kasumi turned to the door and saw her sisters standing there and waiting for her.

"So…" Akane said, sniffing. "You're really going?"

Kasumi nodded. "I'm sorry Akane. Don't worry, I'll come back all the time, I promise." She said, trying to cheer her younger sister up.

"I know…" Akane said, "I'll just… I'll miss you, Kasumi." With that, the youngest Tendo ran forward, and was enfolded in her older sister's arms, Kasumi rubbing her back soothingly.

Nabiki, behind Akane, smirked. "I'm not into all those dramatic tearjerker scenes." She drawled. "I'll miss you, sis. Make sure to call often."

"I will." Kasumi said, disengaging herself from Akane and hefting her bag. "Is the tuition money in my account, Nabiki?"

Nabiki nodded. "You'll need to take a part time job, but I got you a nice deal on an apartment, and I'll send what I can whenever I can."

"Thank you, Nabiki, Akane…" Kasumi said, a few tears gathering in her own eyes.

"I'll take care of the house for you, okay Kasumi?" Akane said, trying to look cheerful. "I'll do all the cooking and cleaning and everything!"

Kasumi nodded, but a small part of her mind speculated as to how long the place would be standing with Akane taking care of it. She knew it was a mean thought, and that her sister truly tried her best, but sometimes Akane's capacity for botching even the simplest of household tasks stretched even her self-control. Pulling her mind away from that, Kasumi left the Tendo house, turning at the gate to wave to her sisters and give them a smile.

Akane and Nabiki both waved back, trying to muster up grins in response, before their sister turned again and walked down the street towards the subway station.

HR

It was later that night, when Ranma knocked tentatively at Haruka's apartment door. "Come in!" the blond called, reclining on her bed in a tank top and her underwear.

The door creaked open, and Ranma entered the single room apartment, quickly turning bright red and whirling around to face the door. "H… Haruka?" He squeaked, surprised.

This time, the blond did let herself laugh. She rarely ever tried to embarrass guys, as she was normally gunning for other girls, and casual flirting worked better in that regard, but the look on Ranma's face before he had turned around was priceless.

"That wasn't funny!" The pigtailed martial artist complained, although he didn't sound particularly angry.

"Aw, c'mon Ranma. It's nothing you haven't seen in a mirror, right?" Haruka teased, as she sat up on the bed, letting her feet settle to the floor.

"Promise you aren't gunna slap me?" Ranma asked, still turned around.

"I won't slap you." Haruka said, solemnly, causing the boy to turn around, briefly looking her over before he slumped into a chair near the bed. Although she had the same habit of wearing tank tops to bed that he did, she wore the correct female undergarments underneath… not that he was looking there, of course not, no way…"So, when do I get the same show? Should I go get some cold water?" She continued, smiling cheekily.

Ranma just glared, all thoughts of embarrassment, at least those caused by her lightly clothed state, forgotten. Letting up on the glare, he shook his head. "Aw, and here I came ta tell you somethin really important, too."

Haruka leaned forward, interested. "Really? What is it?" She asked, curiously.

"I dunno, you wanna know?" Ranma asked, smirking.

"Yes, I want to know." Haruka said, slightly annoyed.

"Well, I decided I was gunna go to that school. Y'know, that one we got the invitation for yesterday?" Ranma said, tentatively.

Haruka looked surprised. From the way he had reacted when the two had first received their invitations, she had expected him to hesitate for a while before agreeing, or maybe even refusing the offer, even if it was a good one. Shunting away her feelings of surprise, she grinned. "That's great, Ranma!" She said, and meant it. "So what made you decide to do it so quickly?"

Ranma looked uncomfortable. "Well, you know that woman who came here today?"

"Yeah… she said she was your aunt." Haruka said, nodding.

"Well, she's sorta in the same boat I am, but she's not used to workin or anything. She was taken care of by a special account her parents set up, or somethin." At this point, he started to look nervous. "So I sorta figured that if I took the offer, we could put her up in one of the rooms of the place we're goin to…?"

Haruka contemplated this for a few moments. True, it was a strange reason to accept, but if a member of her family was in trouble, she supposed she'd probably do the same thing. She assumed 'in the same boat' meant that this Nodoka person had been cast out of the same clan as Ranma, and she distantly wondered what the clan head was thinking. As she noticed that Ranma was fidgeting nervously in the chair across from her, she realized that she'd been thinking for too long, and also wondered why her opinion of his actions meant so much to him. "Sure, that's fine with me, if Meiou-san and the school agree."

Ranma smiled widely. "Thanks, Haruka. I sorta told her I had a place for her ta stay without thinking that you'd be livin there too." He admitted, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "So I guess I'll call 'em up and accept tomorrow, then." He turned to leave, but then turned back as he opened the door. "Thanks a lot, Haruka-chan." He said, grinning.

The blond tomboy sputtered at the last comment, before grabbing a pillow and tossing it at the pigtailed martial artist. "Don't call me that!" She said, laughing.

Ranma grinned, catching the soft projectile and whipping it back before dodging out of the door and closing it behind him. He had stumbled upon that little crack in Haruka's composure during their sparring session the day before, when he'd innocently called her that while asking if she was all right after getting thrown into a tree. It seemed that it irritated her about as much as it did him, and she was a lot more willing to show it. Chuckling, he headed down the hall to his own apartment, wondering what would happen when he registered for school the next day. 'I can't believe I'm throwing myself back into that nightmare…' Was his final thought, as he entered his apartment and flopped down on his bed.

HR

Sometimes Happosai, grand master of the anything goes school, thought that the gods were still angry at him for that little incident with the Shinto priestess last century. He had searched all through the city of Tokyo, until he had finally localized Ranma down to a single district. Then, he had gone on one, little panty raid and everything had gone wrong.

Sure, he had wanted to find the panties of one of those magical girls… but how was he supposed to know that the girls, and therefore their auras, were so pumped full of elemental magic that when he tried to draw energy from a pair of their panties that he had gotten from somewhere, he still wasn't sure what line had held them, he would blow himself half way to hell?

As he lay, still trying to recover from the magical blast that he had been hit with, while completely defenseless, Happosai heard the sound of footsteps coming towards him. Too tired and injured to bother with looking to see who was coming, the old man just waited. Suddenly, a voice rang out. "What the… Grandfather Hino, Come quick! there's some sort of demon behind the shrine!"

Happosai grimaced as another sound came to him, that of two other pairs of feet coming towards him, but his expression turned to one of delight when he sensed the fiery Chi of a young lady coming near, along with the much less interesting, and less powerful, chi of the shrine priest.

"Hotcha!" Happi yelled, springing to his feet, his many injuries seeming not to matter as he jumped at the girl's chest. The old priest flung a demon ward at him, but it wasn't what got him. No, what got Happosai was that this sweet young girl was yet another of those mini-skirted magical girls, obviously in a civilian disguise, and fire hurt a lot more than that bright light he'd been hit with last time.

As Rei Hino, her grandfather and Yuuichiro watched, the little demon that the latter had found in the back of the shrine grounds streaked into the air on a column of fire. "What… was that?" The miko asked, looking down at the portion of her chest where the thing had briefly latched on.

Her grandfather just shrugged and shook his head. He had no clue, although the thing did look mildly familiar.

END.

Well, 'book 2' begins. Ranma and Haruka are heading to school, Kasumi's on her way, and say it with me. Poor Happosai… Why do I always make normally evil characters so pathetic?


	13. Chapter 12, Three sides of a coin?

NOTE: This chapter is mainly Haruka's POV, and contains at least one scene of MAJOR WAFF! You have been warned.

It's a sort of exploration of Ranma and Haruka's budding relationship, and how confusing it is, and before you ask, it wasn't supposed to be this damned long!

Also, I'd like to thank all of my reviewers. I got 41 reviews on a single chapter and you made my day. Thank you all.

One more thing! This fic now has a beta! I thank dragonofAlagaesia for putting up with me! Remember, I post to FFN immediately upon completion so you can't blame him for an error until 2 days after the chapter has been posted.

Anyhow, on with the fic!

Chapter 12: Three sides of a coin?

Kasumi Tendo smiled as she looked out of the window of her new apartment, at the shopping area of the Juuban district. She had gotten here from Nerima last night, and had only taken a few minutes to find the place. It was kind of hard to miss, considering that there was a huge golden crown painted on the sign out front of the building. Nabiki, apparently, had managed to take care of her older sister's housing and work at the same time, as Kasumi was living in a small guest room in the Furuhata residence, above their family owned restaurant and game arcade, the Crown. She had only met the elder two Furuhatas last night, and not talked to them for very long, but they seemed like a very nice family.

After quickly getting dressed in a knee length blue skirt and pink blouse, for once without her traditional apron, the eldest Tendo sister left her room and walked down to the second floor of the building, which contained the restaurant, and went to the kitchen in the back. According to what Mr. Furuhata had told her the night before, she was to be the place's new part time chef, as they had decided to expand from simple desserts and other treats into other types of food in order to compete with two new places that had opened nearby recently.

Smiling, the cheerful girl quickly rummaged around the kitchen, pulling various items from the shelves and refrigerator in order to make herself, and probably her host family, some breakfast. True, she missed her sisters, but being away from home wasn't really as scary as she had once thought, especially with such a familiar job.

HR

As Mousse ran a damp cloth across the tables in the serving area of the Peaking Duck in order to prepare it for opening, he whistled happily. Life as the owner of a Café was far better than that as the lowest paid and least respected waiter, he had quickly discovered. Plus, Cologne had resumed the training that she had stopped giving him originally when he had begun chasing Shampoo. To top it all off, he had even managed to track down the only sparring partner who was worth anything that he'd found in the past few years, and they were going to have a match tomorrow.

Yes, things were going pretty well for the blind master of hidden weapons, until he walked to the back door of the Café to drop a bag of garbage outside, only to see a lump on the ground. Dropping the bag into the can, he approached the lump and examined it. It was small, and covered in dark purple cloth. Tentatively, he poked it with one foot, causing it to roll over and display more fully what it was. Mousse screamed.

HR

Later that day, Ranma and Haruka looked nervously at the front entrance of a smallish house, near the edge of the Juuban district. "Is this the place?" Ranma asked, curiously.

Haruka consulted a card that she'd tucked into the breast pocket of the white business shirt she was wearing, above the black dress pants and shoes. Ranma wasn't looking nearly as formal, simply dressed in one of his traditional Red Chinese shirt and black pants combos, Mostly because the only formalwear he had was for his female form anyways.

At the moment, the Martial artist and the cross-dresser were headed for a meeting with Setsuna Meiou, the head of Meiou industries, that had been arranged when Haruka had called to accept the invitation to Infinity Academy this morning. It had seemed strange that the head of a multi-national corporation would have time free in her schedule on the same day when they had called, and even stranger that she would request the meeting at her own house, but Ranma had just shrugged this off when Haruka had commented on it.

"Looks like the right address." Haruka said, interrupting Ranma's train of thought before heading for the door to the house. Knocking on the door, it was answered a few minutes later by Ms. Meiou, dressed in a casual pair of slacks and a blouse. She looked the same as she had during the party a few days before, aside from the fact that her hair was let down from the ball it had been gathered in at the back, and flowed down naturally now. "Hello Haruka, Ranma." She said, in a quiet and calm voice, before backing away from the doorway. "Please come in."

The two both nodded, slipping off their shoes in the doorway before entering the house. A small living room was set directly off from the front entrance, and Setsuna quickly guided them there, Before sitting in a comfortable looking chair on one side of the room. Ranma and Haruka quickly took places on a couch across from her, while looking around the room.

Haruka, who had a great deal more social education than Ranma, spoke. "Nice place." She said, as an attempted conversation opener, after a few minutes of slightly uncomfortable silence.

Setsuna smiled. "I'm glad to hear you like it, as this will be where you and Ranma-san will be staying during your school years, if you accept the scholarship from Meiou Industries, at least."

"Here?" Ranma asked, confused. "I thought this was your house."

"It is." Setsuna said, her smile beginning to look a little like one of Nabiki's smirks. "I'll be living here as well, along with a fourth person who we all select."

The smirk put Ranma a little bit on edge, but Haruka beat him to the next question. "Forgive me for sounding a little rude," She said, drawing on every lesson her parents had once taught her about manners. Note that they were pretty rusty by this point. "…but why would the manager of a large business like Meiou Industries suddenly decide to take on three other people as boarders?"

Setsuna actually laughed at that. "Believe it or not, I'm not particularly powerful with Meiou industries. The company is mostly run by a board of stockholders. Honestly, my main job is actually to be a figurehead, and I do some volunteer work as a councilor at a Junior High school near here." She explained, the small laugh at the beginning of the statement being swallowed up into a look of calm.

"A… school councilor?" Haruka asked, confused. "Then how…"

"I make a lot of money from holding stock in the company." Setsuna said, not mentioning that she'd been saving it for a few hundred years by this point. "And I found you and Ranma to be interesting investments."

Suddenly, a light seemed to go off in Ranma's head. "Hey wait, didn't I see you in a bar once?" He asked, before realizing that he'd just said something kind of stupid and trying to sink into the couch. The glare Haruka was giving him could have been helping him in that regard.

Setsuna laughed again, and this time it was longer. "I believe I vaguely remember that occasion." She said, before continuing. "But you do realize that if I hadn't already made enquiries into you and 'Ranko' with Nabiki Tendo, you could have just given me many questions?"

'Well, that explains how she knew who I was when she only met my girl side at the party…' Ranma thought, looking distinctly embarrassed. After that discussion, the three eventually got down to actual discussion of the living arrangements in the house, and various aspects of Ranma and Haruka's entrance into Infinity Academy, until several hours later, when the two teenagers left the house.

HR

As Ranma and Haruka walked back towards their soon to be former apartment building, Ranma spoke up. "Well, she seemed nice enough." He said, referring to Setsuna.

"Yeah, but a bit strange, don't you think?" Haruka asked, thinking of the woman's rather strange reasoning for offering them all that she had. It seemed too good to be true, but it all checked out. She had checked to make sure before she and Ranma had met with Setsuna.

Ranma shrugged. "Well, she hasn't tried to kill me yet, and she said it would be all right if Nodoka moved in, so I'll take a bit of weirdness."

"Hasn't tried to kill you?" Haruka asked, looking at her pigtailed companion strangely.

"Oh yeah, that's happened a lot. I mean, Mousse was trying to kill me the first time he saw me, too. And Ryoga and…" He seemed to trail off as he saw Haruka's mouth gaping open. "Is there somethin wrong?"

The blonde shook her head. Ranma had made the occasional oblique reference to his life before coming to the Minato ward being pretty insane, but still… 'It's best not to think about it.' She decided, wanting to spare herself from the insanity.

HR

Late Sunday morning, Ranma placed a large cardboard box on the stairs of Setsuna's house. It was Haruka's, which had been moved over on her bike. His own pack and other meager belongings had been roof-hopped over earlier, before Haruka had woken up. She seemed to like sleeping in on Sundays way too much. "Is that the last of it?" He asked, looking over at the blonde.

"Yeah, that's all of it." She confirmed, before she nervously looked back to the street, where a really frazzled looking Nodoka stood, clutching at her bokken. "But what are we going to do about your aunt?"

Ranma looked at Nodoka in puzzlement. "Why's she standing like that, anyways?"

Haruka shrugged. "I don't know. All I did was give her a ride here from her hotel on my bike." She said, trying to look innocent.

Ranma, who'd used that exact same poorly crafted expression of innocence himself, looked at her sharply. "How fast did you drive?" He asked, remembering Haruka's performance in the one race that he had seen, on the same bike she had used to transport Nodoka.

The blonde just fidgeted absently, as Setsuna exited the house, and took a speculative look at Nodoka. Seeming to instantly grasp the problem, she walked over to the apparently older woman and took her by the arm. "Come on inside, Nodoka-san. I've got some stuff in there that should calm you down."

Nodoka nodded numbly, before following Setsuna into the house, her bokken still clutched in bone white fingers. Ranma looked between the two, feeling a bit worried for his former mother, but shrugged it off. Setsuna was some sort of councilor, so he figured that she knew what she was doing. "Let's get this stuff inside. I promised Mousse a sparring session today, remember?" He asked, picking the box back up.

"Oh yeah," Haruka said, grabbing another box that she'd carried in. "Any chance I can watch?"

"How good are you at ducking?" Ranma said, deadpan.

Haruka laughed nervously, but continued. "Come on, Ranma. I've never seen you fight all out before. It'll be fun." She said, persuasively.

Ranma shrugged. "Sure, I guess. I'll just have ta get Cologne to stand near you to deflect anything dangerous. Mousse likes throwing blades around." Setting his box down in Haruka's room, he looked around. The whole place was fully furnished, which was a good thing since neither he nor Haruka had enough money to pay for the furnishings, and Haruka's room seemed to have been laid out especially for her. Even the sheets on her bed were bright yellow, apparently her favorite color. It was actually kinda spooky how well Setsuna had pegged her and Ranma's preferences, including the set of training equipment in the backyard of the house.

"Well, if that's everything, let's go." Ranma said, turning to Haruka's bedroom door before getting a slightly evil look on his face. "I know, let's go the fast way!" 'This should teach her for scarin the crap outta mom.' He thought, scooping Haruka up, opening her window and jumping out.

"This is the second floor, you idiot!" Haruka shrieked, in an embarrassingly high voice, as she plummeted to the ground with her eyes closed, anticipating intense pain. To her surprise, Ranma's feet touched the ground and abruptly sprang off of it, only causing her a slight jolt. Opening her eyes again, she saw that she and Ranma were flying through the air, straight onto the roof of the nearest house. "What the hell are you doing?" She demanded, as he hit the next roof, his feet gliding silently across the top ridge.

"You'd better hold on tighter or I could drop ya." Ranma said, deliberately slackening his grip until Haruka flung her arms around his neck. Somehow, that felt as nice as when Akane had done the same thing the few times he had taken her hopping across the rooftops.

As the martial artist continued moving at high speed towards Juuban's shopping district, Haruka began to relax slightly. After the overwhelming terror of being practically thrown out a window, the ride had actually been pretty pleasant, and even somehow fun. She found herself now anticipating every time Ranma's legs would coil beneath them, launching them over a gap between two houses, or up onto a taller building in their path. In a dark corner of her mind, she even acknowledged that being held in his arms was a very nice sensation.

Feeling his passenger relax, Ranma grinned. "Wanna go faster?" He asked, looking down at the blonde in his arms.

Almost against her will, Haruka found her head nodding, and then Ranma was running and jumping at double the speed he had been, the wind whipping her short cut hair into a frenzy and she found herself laughing her head off with the sheer exhilaration of the flight.

When Ranma stopped in front of the Peaking Duck, Haruka was almost reluctant to get out of his arms, however she immediately did so. Also, protocol had to be met. "You do realize I'll have to pay you back for that at some point, right Ranma?" She asked, evenly.

He grinned nervously, scratching the back of his head. "We should go in and see Mousse." He said, trying to change the subject. Haruka decided to let him, and the two walked into the building to see it empty as before, only this time with a closed sign over the door that Ranma promptly ignored.

"Hey, Ranma." Mousse said, from his position in the main room, looking slightly pale. As Haruka walked in, the hidden weapons master squinted at her. "Who's that?"

"It's Haruka." Ranma said, looking at Mousse strangely. "You remember, the person I brought in when I first came here?"

"Oh, I didn't recognize you." Mousse said, distantly, shooting a glance at the back room of the Café.

"Mousse, is there somethin wrong?" Ranma asked, looking with some concern at the blind boy.

"You should probably go in back and talk to Cologne." Mousse said, before leading the two into the back room that he had been looking at earlier. Ranma looked at Haruka nervously before the two followed, entering what appeared to be the former Amazon elder's bedroom, where Cologne was standing over a bed.

"Hey ol' ghoul, what's wrong with…" Ranma stopped, as he saw what lay in the bed. "Whoa, what happened to him?" He continued, looking at the battered, beaten, bruised and burnt form of the anything goes grandmaster Happosai.

Curious, Haruka looked over Ranma's shoulder to see the shriveled old man and shook her head. "That's a person?" She asked, before Cologne's staff smacked into the top of her head.

"Yes that's a person… barely." The old woman muttered, frowning worriedly.

"What. Is there somethin wrong with the old freak? Just looks like he got beaten up a bit worse by some girl, is all." Ranma said, trying to be casual. He would never admit worry for what was occasionally the bane of his existence, but he didn't want to see Happosai severely hurt. In Nebraska, maybe, but not severely hurt.

Cologne sighed. "I don't know. It's as if the fool tried to absorb raw magic with his Chi absorption technique. Half his chi paths are burnt out." She explained, frowning thoughtfully. "There are only two things that can do this kind of damage to someone's Chi flow; youki, and magic, and I can't sense any demonic energy around him. Well, any more than usual."

At this point Haruka was lost, just standing behind Ranma and trying not to be noticed, however the pigtailed martial artist was thinking something over. "Well, there are some sorta weird demons runnin around this district. Maybe one of them got him?"

Cologne gave Ranma a sharp glance. "What kind of demons?" She asked, calmly.

"I dunno. All I can say is that they eat Chi for breakfast and normal martial arts doesn't stand a chance. Mousse could do some damage, or Ukyo's big spatula, but the things suck any chi out of strikes ya hit 'em with." Ranma said, remembering the Youma that had drilled him through a wall.

"I will have to look into this while I care for Happi." Cologne said, turning back to the bedridden martial arts master. "For now I suggest that you do not worry about this, and just leave the fighting to the group of magic users who populate this district."

"Magic users?" Ranma asked, confused.

"I think she means the senshi." Haruka said, sighing as Ranma looked at her blankly. "You know, short skirted defenders of love and justice, magical attacks and stupid speeches?" She smiled as she thought of a news clip she had seen of a senshi battle a few days ago. Yet another thing that she had once thought to be an urban legend, at best. But still… they did look a bit stupid.

HR

In Setsuna's house, the aforementioned woman sneezed as she was pouring a cup of tea for Nodoka, looking annoyed as the pot jumped in her hand, spilling it's contents all over the kitchen counter.

HR

Ranma suddenly nodded. "Oh yeah, Nabiki told me about 'em once. So what do we do then?"

"Well, you could proceed with your plans to spar with Mousse today." Cologne suggested, dabbing Happosai's forehead with cool water. "Finding Happosai as beaten up as he was yesterday, and believe me it was worse, shook him up a bit."

"Sure, I guess." Ranma said, glancing at Mousse. "C'mon duck boy." He said, putting on his 'You really, really wanna kill me' expression. "Let's go out back so I can kick your ass."

The pale color of Mousse's cheeks suddenly darkened, as he glared at Ranma. "That's what you think." He growled, charging out of the room. Haruka gaped for a moment, before running out after the two men.

After the young people were gone, Cologne sighed. "Happi, you idiot. What have you gotten yourself into this time?"

HR

'This is sparring?' Haruka thought, as a very real and very sharp scimitar wielded by Mousse sailed over Ranma's head, missing a very messy decapitation by what seemed like mere inches. Now she sort of understood why some of the training Ranma had put her through was so intensive. If he had been sparring like this for his entire life, the training was probably necessary for survival. This battle had been going on for the past five minutes, and the robed martial artist had so far pulled about fifty pounds of weapons and chain from his robe. She now knew why Ranma had once called him the master of hidden weapons.

The pigtailed boy dodged another swing from the scimitar, and used a knife hand to Mousse's wrist to make him drop the weapon. Within seconds, another blade, this time a katana, fell into the hand from the sleeve, however Ranma had used Mousse's temporarily disarmed state to land a few powerful blows on the other man's midsection. Mousse rocketed back, hitting the ground and bouncing, however he turned the bounce into a roll, coming back to his feet and flicking his wrists, sending a flurry of knives at Ranma.

His eyes widened however, when he realized that he'd just made a big mistake. Ranma was currently in between Mousse and Haruka, and some of the projectiles were on a straight course to hit the blonde. Thinking quickly and in a rather real panic, the pigtailed martial artist's hands blurred, and he caught all but one of the projectiles, which sailed past him and clipped Haruka in the cheek.

Haruka moved her hand up to her face, and felt the small cut the blade had made on her cheek with something approaching shock. If it had been a bit to the left, it probably would have killed her, and there had been many that were in that area, however Ranma had knocked them all off course., while the one that remained was too fast for her to even react to.

If the combat that had just taken place wasn't indicator enough, what had just happened told Haruka that Ranma was in a league of his own when it came to martial ability. If he'd been using that speed in the sparring match, Mousse would have been flattened.

"Hey Haruka, you okay?" Ranma asked, running over to her and grabbing her face to check the cut on her cheek.

The blonde exasperatedly shook Ranma off, slightly annoyed. "I'm fine." She said, although there was a small tremble in her voice that, thankfully, Ranma was too dense to pick up.

"Mousse, I'm gunna pound ya for that, but it's gunna be next week." Ranma snapped, glaring at Mousse, who just looked sheepish and mildly ashamed. He'd always had problems with bystanders, but he'd never come that close to actually killing one before.

"Let's go back home." Ranma said, turning around and walking from the yard, holding Haruka by the arm.

"Ranma, I'm fine." Haruka said, irritated, pulling her arm free. "It was just a small scratch."

Ranma sighed. "Sorry 'bout that, Haruka." He shook his head. "Guess I sorta over-reacted because of what my life used ta be like, before I left home."

"Speaking of which, you haven't told me any of that." Haruka said, suddenly.

"Well you've been pretty mysterious about your past, too." Ranma countered, annoyed.

Haruka grinned, having just had an idea. "How about we have dinner tonight and nose into each other's lives?"

"You askin for another date?" Ranma asked, surprised, as the two exited the Peaking Duck and turned onto the main street.

"Is that a yes?" Haruka asked, continuing to grin.

Ranma grinned back. "Sure, why not? But I gotta tell ya that my life's pretty strange." He confessed, looking a bit apprehensive.

"Well, it should be interesting dinner conversation then, right?" Haruka asked, cheerfully. Then, she added her final shot. "You do remember that you're the girl tonight, right?"

Ranma stopped dead, and his eye twitched as Haruka started laughing and ran ahead of him. "Hey, get back here!" He yelled, chasing after her. The worst part was, he couldn't argue with what she'd said. According to the deal they'd agreed upon at the end of their last date, he was supposed to be the girl this time. 'Kami this relationship's screwed up…' He thought, but then grinned. 'But at least it's more normal than life in Nerima.'

HR

In Setsuna's home, the guardian of time was actually having quite a bit of fun, sitting and drinking tea with Nodoka. One of the things that she always wanted, mostly due to her long and lonely stints at the gates of time during the intervening years between the silver millennium and the present day, was human companionship.

Most of the main line Setsunas were occupied with managing the timeline, or if they were lonely, they could call up some past or future version of themselves to talk to, but she hadn't had that luxury, mainly due to the fact that this universe's time gates were basically a really complex television. As a result, the quiet and reserved Nodoka was truly a treat to be with, even if the two talked mostly of inconsequential things, and Setsuna's students. She had a feeling that the other woman would eventually become more comfortable and loosen up. That should make for some interesting conversation.

As the front door to the house opened, the two older women looked up to see a panting, yet grinning Haruka charge in. Closely behind her, Ranma came through the door with a similar look on his face. The blonde's cheer quickly took a hit however, when Nodoka leveled an icy glare at her.

"Haruka-san." She said, coldly. "Hello, Ranma." She continued, her voice becoming warmer. "How did your spar with that Mousse boy go?"

Ranma looked slightly uncomfortable. Even during his time at the Tendo Dojo, his mother had made him feel a little uncomfortable, but he decided to answer her with the truth. "It was all right, mostly. Duck boy's gotten a lot better since I fought him last, but he almost got Haruka with one of his stupid attacks."

Nodoka's coldness towards the blonde cross-dresser instantly thawed slightly. "Are you all right, Haruka-san?" She asked, getting out of the chair that she sat in, next to Setsuna's large comfortable one, in the living room.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Haruka said, waving off Nodoka's concern. In that moment, the former Saotome matriarch noticed how much like Ranma Haruka acted, and she began to understand why the girl had taken her on a joyride through Minato… Not that she'd let it slide, of course, but she understood.

Noticing something on Haruka's face, Nodoka reached out and grabbed it similarly to the way Ranma had earlier, and looked at the left cheek where Mousse's blade had cut her. For a moment, Haruka was reminded of how her own mother had taken care of her injuries, before she'd found out about Haruka's… preferences, and become somewhat colder and more distant.

"I'll go get a bandage for that." She said, before turning away.

"Thank you, Nodoka-san." Haruka said, uncertainly.

"Call me aunty, dear." Nodoka called over her shoulder, as she left the room.

"I think she likes you, despite what ya did to her this morning." Ranma said, laughing.

A few minutes later, as Haruka applied a skin-tone bandage to the cut on her cheek, she asked, "So, is this going to make me look like an idiot on the date tonight?" Grinning at Ranma.

Nodoka, who had gone back to her seat and cup of tea with Setsuna, perked up. "You and Ranma are going out tonight?"

"Yeah, probably dinner and a movie." Haruka said, casually, wondering why Nodoka suddenly looked like a hungry wolf stalking it's prey.

"Do you need me to help you get ready?" The older woman asked, expectantly.

Haruka blinked, and then began to catch on. "No, I think I'll be all right." She said, laughing nervously. 'I wonder how she'll react when she sees us leave.' She thought, half dreading the event.

HR

Later that night, Nodoka's expression was rather interesting as she saw her former child, red hair tied into a ponytail and wearing a pair of dress slacks, that ironically enough she had bought her, and a red blouse, walking out of the house with Haruka, who was wearing a casual suit. "Are… you sure you want to go out like that, Ranma?" She asked, her voice shaking as if she DESPERATELY wanted to say something a bit harsher.

Ranma looked apologetic, but she couldn't help but enjoy watching Nodoka squirm a little. Call it vengeance for all of the weird crap she'd given guys a bad name by claming was manly, but seeing her desperately trying to hold back a 'not manly' comment made Ranma feel somehow pleased with herself. "Not really much of a choice, Aunty." She said, casually. "It's the agreement me 'n Haruka worked out."

"Agreement?" Nodoka asked, and then couldn't resist a comment. "And it's Haruka and I, dear."

"Yeah. Since we both dress as guys and act like guys most of the time, we figured we'd alternate dates as the girl." Ranma explained. "It's Haruka's turn next time, right Haruka?" She asked, glaring at the blonde.

"Yeah, yeah." Haruka said, hurriedly, warding off the glare.

"Well… that's fine then. Have fun." Nodoka said, slightly relieved. At least Ranma wasn't going to be dressing up as a girl for all of their dates… but she must have a talk with Haruka at some point. This really couldn't be healthy.

HR

"You enjoyed that, and I'm not sure why." Haruka casually commented, as the two gender confused individuals walked down the street outside of Setsuna's house.

Ranma shrugged, but didn't deny it. "So, where are we going?"

Haruka looked contemplative. "I said dinner and a movie earlier, but Nodoka-san already made dinner, so how about we go to the movie and tell our life stories on the way?" She suggested, uncertainly.

"I hope you picked a theatre that's pretty far away." Ranma said, grinning.

"That bad?" Haruka asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Worse." Ranma confirmed. With that, she began to tell a brief and abridged version of her life, leaving out her mother and the seppuku promise simply because she could imagine that Haruka wouldn't exactly be civil to Nodoka after learning that she was willing to chop someone's head off at one point.

HR

About twenty minutes later, Haruka was gaping. "Three fiancées?!" Haruka sputtered, astonished.

"Don't forget the gymnast and the kendoist." Ranma chipped in, sardonically.

"And that Mousse guy, and some others were actually attacking you every day?" Haruka continued, starting to wonder if Ranma was insane. Then again, from what she'd seen of Ranma and her fighting ability, something like that just may be the truth.

"Yep. Now, how about your story?" Ranma said, seeming to be completely casual about the gaping maw of insanity that her life had been before she had moved.

"After that story, mine's going to sound pretty dull," Haruka said, then continued. "Basically, I was your standard little rich kid."

"You're rich?" Ranma asked, looking surprised.

Haruka looked at her strangely. "Yeah." She said, slowly.

"You did live in the same apartment building I did, right?" Ranma asked, sarcastically.

"Yeah, but I was also carting around a high performance racing motorcycle." Haruka retorted, shrugging. "Now can I continue my story?"

Ranma nodded, and Haruka did so. "Well, When I was about seven, my parents picked up this little dirt bike, and I took a ride on it. I'd always been really good in track and field, but when I got a hold of that bike…" Haruka grinned dreamily before continuing. "Well, they spoiled me rotten, obviously, and helped me get into racing. Everyone at school said it was a boy's sport, and so did most of the race officials, so I started dressing as a guy. When I got to the age when you're supposed to start noticing the opposite sex, I was hanging around with guys, whistling at the girls just like one of the guys, and it felt right."

"I bet your parents weren't very happy about that." Ranma muttered, imagining her father, or even worse, her mother's reaction if she were to start liking guys.

Haruka laughed. "Mom was ready to kill me, cut off my head or something." Looking at Ranma, she wondered why she suddenly flinched at that remark, but continued. "Dad though… he was a bit odd. I think he'd always wanted a son, and after he found out I liked girls he started treating me as his little boy. Drove mom up the wall! Of course, a few months ago they both told me that there was this arranged marriage that they'd made when I was only about six, and that I was supposed to marry some guy I didn't even know. Kind of like with you and that Akane girl you were telling me about."

For some reason, Ranma flinched again. "So who was this guy you were supposed to marry?" She asked, while thinking that the Kami couldn't possibly be cruel enough to do what she almost knew was coming.

Haruka put a closed fist under her chin in thought for a minute, before laughing. "Y'know, I don't think I even remember the guy's name anymore. Anyways, after I found out about that I got on my bike and got as far away as I could on one tank of gas."

So, Haruka had run from an arrangement like her father and Mr. Tendo's plan to join the schools. Sometimes, she wished that she'd done the same. Maybe then, her honor would have only been damaged by one broken promise, and maybe she wouldn't have hurt Akane so much…

"Hey Ranma, we're here. What are you thinking so intently about?" Haruka asked, snapping her fingers in front of the redhead's face.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, blinking as the well lit inside of a movie theatre greeted her gaze. "Oh, we're here… I wasn't thinking about anything." She lied, before following Haruka into the theatre.

HR

About eighty minutes later, Haruka was cursing herself for an idiot. She had treated the movie selection as if she were taking a normal girl to the movies, that is, a romantic flick. Of course, Ranma was more male than she was, even under the cute redheaded form she currently wore, and kind of a stereotypical male, at that. She'd fallen asleep after the first forty five minutes of the movie, and Haruka had been forced to sit through the rest of it alone.

Of course, there were consolations. Like seeing Ranma-chan's cute expressions as she tried to make herself comfortable in her sleep. Haruka jumped as the redhead fell a little to the right, and her head came to rest on the blonde's shoulder. Reaching up with one hand, the blonde absently began stroking the redhead's silky hair, and the other girl began to move closer. She couldn't help but grin as she thought that this petite, delicate looking girl had, only a short time ago, been the man who had scooped her up in his arms and bounded across roofs like they were nothing.

The reversal when Ranma changed forms was almost comical. even though Haruka was about the same size as Ranma's male form, he was protective of her, and even when sparring and inflicting injury, he was always careful with her. When Ranma was female, she was small, and even though Haruka's brain told her that she had a similar amount of strength to her male form, the cross-dressing blonde couldn't help but to feel that she had to protect and care for Ranma's cursed form, the same way he seemed to do for her. 'Kami this relationship's screwed up…" she thought, but smiled. 'Screwed up isn't necessarily a bad thing, though.'

As she thought about her and Ranma's different interactions, a funny idea popped into her head. The movie was going to end in about five minutes, and if she was careful, she could pick Ranma up without waking her. Reaching under the redhead's legs and putting a hand behind her head, she lifted her in much the same way Ranma had this morning. 'I wonder if he realized that this is how you're supposed to carry your bride over a threshold?' She thought with a grin, before carefully navigating her way out of the row of seats where she and Ranma had sat, and up the isle. The redhead was strangely heavy for her size, but even so she was light enough for Haruka to handle.

As she passed the ticket booth at the front of the theatre, she saw the young man inside it give her a thumbs up and a big grin. Haruka grinned back. Even if she hadn't done what the guy thought, increasing one's reputation always helped, right?

About twenty minutes later, Haruka was regretting this idea just a bit. Her back hurt like hell from supporting Ranma's weight, but every time she tried to wake the redhead, she'd just mutter plaintively and tighten her hold around Haruka's neck, something that had happened about ten minutes into the walk. Then again, the red hair tickling her chin and the breath whispering across her neck was extremely distracting.

Fortunately, just as Haruka's protesting back was about to make her set Ranma down for at least a few minutes, she came into sight of the house, and forced herself to make it to the door. 'If I carry her in like this…' She thought, with an evil grin. Using her foot, she kicked at the door as her hands weren't free to knock or open it. It seemed that the noise of her kicking the door was causing Ranma to wake up, though, as her body was squirming in Haruka's arms. 'Hurry up…' She thought, just as the door opened to reveal Nodoka and Setsuna.

HR

"Ngh… what's goin on?" Ranma asked, blurrily, as she felt that she was being carried by someone. Cracking an eye open, she saw an expanse of grey. Pulling her head back, it resolved into Haruka's suit jacket, and the blonde's grinning face as she looked over Ranma's shoulder. Craning her neck, Ranma then saw her mother and Setsuna staring at her and Haruka in bemusement. "This is your revenge for this morning, isn't it?"

"Yep." Haruka said, cheerfully, entering the house and setting Ranma down on her feet in the hallway.

"I'm sure you two had an interesting night." Nodoka said, dryly, her eye twitching.

"Why don't you tell us all about it?" Setsuna chipped in, a large grin on her face. 'Having these two around is going to be fun!' She thought.

END.

NOTE: I have nothing against Nebraska, but you must admit it's REALLY far away from Japan.

About Setsuna's business. It was something to do, she was bored.


	14. Chapter 14, The devil hunting duck and t

Author's notes: I didn't skip chapter 13 because of superstition, really! Hey, why are you looking at me like that? (Sigh,) Alright, so I did do it because of superstition… but at least it brings the number of chapters on FFN into sync with the chapter numbers again…

Damn it, the reviewers tell me how nice it is that the story is focusing on character development rather than fighting, and I come to the first chapter with two major fighting scenes in it! How freaking ironic is this! Well, I spent a while considering re-writing the chapter, but this is how the plot wishes to go. In all honesty I am dead serious when I say that I have no control over these stories. What I can tell you is that there's still going to be more character building in the story than brawling, but it IS Ranma and it IS Sailor Moon. Some youma busting and martial artist brawling is inevitable.

This chapter's also a bit of an experiment for me in the more dramatic stuff… so… hold on to your lunches folks, and try to be gentle when you kill me, please:D

With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!

Special thanks to my Beta for correcting errors.

Chapter 14: The devil hunting duck and the chef's plot.

Ukyo Kuonji looked through the plate glass window of her shop with an odd look on her face. It was hard to tell if she felt anger or sadness as she studied the blonde haired person who was carrying a red haired girl in their arms. She knew a lot about Ranma, and more about cross-dressing and cross dressers, which meant she was easily able to identify the blonde as a woman.

As the two disappeared out of sight, the okonomiyaki chef's right hand, which had until now been resting by her side, snapped up to grab one of her throwing spatulas and clench it tightly, until it's handle bent out of shape. "Konatsu…" she whispered, causing the femininely dressed boy who had been standing next to her unobtrusively to start and look directly at her.

"Yes, Ukyo-sama?" Konatsu asked, quietly.

"Follow them." The girl said, the two words clipped and shortened, by anger or sadness Konatsu couldn't tell. Even so, the ninja did as he was told, leaving the new Ucchan's and running silently down the street.

HR.

Mousse walked through the streets of Tokyo, trying to clear his head. He had been doing this for the past few days, however it didn't seem to be working so far. Of course, no one could really blame him, as the world had been getting a bit too weird for him lately. First Ranma had left Nerima, followed by himself, Cologne and rumors had it even Ukyo and now he'd found Happosai half dead in an alley.

He didn't exactly like the old freak, but in Nerima no one had gotten hurt. No matter how many times death threats were uttered, it seemed to always come to nothing, the world going on as it had always done after the battle, with just a bit more wreckage… but it wasn't even really Happosai's state that bothered Mousse, it was more that just a day later he'd almost killed a bystander by accident, yet another thing that had never happened in Nerima.

Growling as the sight of Haruka's terrified face after his own blade nearly killed her kept running through his head, Mousse whipped an arm out, riddling a defenseless brick wall with throwing knives. At the moment he'd give almost anything to be distracted from his own thoughts, however the Peaking Duck was closed while Cologne took care of Happosai and he didn't have much else to do. As he thought this, the sound of a creature of some sort roaring in challenge and then a wall crumbling came rolling down the street. 'Be careful what you wish for…' He thought, charging to see what had made the noise.

HR.

Today was definitely not Makoto Kino's day. This was the top thought on the mind of the tall brown haired Senshi as she ran from a rather ugly looking Youma. Normally, she wouldn't be running from a Youma, but it had attacked too quickly for her to get her henshin pen out and transform. To make the situation worse, it had knocked her into a wall, breaking her communicator, as she was trying to call for the other senshi's help. She was running towards the city's shopping district, which contained a lot of people, but at the moment all she was hoping was that another of the Senshi would see her and help her out.

Diving out of the way of a thrown garbage can, the Senshi of Thunder cursed to herself. 'Come on Makoto, gotta move faster…' she muttered, diving down a side street to avoid another lobbed projectile. She skidded to a stop as she realized that she'd made a mistake, having entered a dead end alley. The wall at the end was too high for her civilian form to jump, and there were no exits.

Whirling around as she reached the end of the alley, the girl grabbed a steel pipe that was laying on the ground and prepared to fight the rapidly charging monster. Even if she couldn't transform, Makoto was not going down without a fight!

The monster was lifting one clawed arm to deal a blow that would probably remove Makoto's arm at the shoulder, when a loud ringing and jangling sound ripped through the air, followed by a chain that wrapped itself around the youma's arm and tightened, pulling it back over it's owner's head in a rather painful fashion.

"Hey you!" Came a loud voice from somewhere above, "Why don't you pick on someone who can fight back, huh?"

Makoto bristled at the implication that she couldn't fight back, however she also realized that whoever this was he'd given her enough time to change. Dodging past the monster as the chain's wielder dove down to alley level to confront it, she caught a glimpse of familiar looking glasses before she was out of the alley and onto the empty street.

Quickly, she pulled her henshin pen from stuff space, holding it high. "Jupiter Star Power, make up!" She shouted, and within a flash of light, transformed into her sailor form. As Sailor Jupiter re-entered the alley, she was surprised to see that the person who had saved her was now doing direct battle with the Youma, and doing it relatively well. He seemed to fight with the use of long chains and throwing weapons, and was distracting and annoying the creature quite a bit. Unfortunately, it quickly became evident that ALL he was doing was annoying the Youma, as a sword that had almost sliced it's arm off quickly found itself being shot out of the wound as it regenerated.

Seeing that the demon was pushing it's current opponent quite a bit, the watching Senshi decided that it was time to interfere. "You, stop!" She commanded, looking sheepish for a second as both the youma and the man fighting it turned to look at her. This was really sailor moon's thing after all. Oh well. Clearing her throat, she spoke again. "Disturbing the piece and chasing innocent men and women to steal their energy is evil. In the name of Jupiter I punish evil, and that means you!" She shifted uncomfortably, feeling pretty sure she'd blown the speech, before shrugging and gathering a bolt of energy in her hands. "Sparkling wide pressure!"

HR.

Mousse was getting irritated. He had heard Ranma describing the creatures that seemed to be pretty common around here when he'd described them to Cologne, but this was ridiculous. This monster, whatever it was, wouldn't fall no matter what he hit it with and that included high explosives. About the only things that caused it any problems at all were his chains, and he was running low on them since it kept breaking the ones he threw. Right after it seemed to throw a scythe, and one of his brand new stainless steel ones at that, out of it's body simply by regenerating the wound, the blind boy was interrupted in a long string of Chinese invective by the sound of a familiar girl's voice.

"Stop!"

The master of hidden weapons quickly turned his head to see the girl who had spoken, but as his glasses had been knocked off in the fighting, all he saw was a brown and green blur. The girl said something else, and he was sure that he'd heard the voice before, though he couldn't place it for some reason. As he turned his blurred vision back towards the monster, a bright ball of light seemed to shoot at it from the girl's direction, causing it to bellow in pain. "Well at least that hurt it a bit." He muttered, slightly disgruntled that the girl had managed to hurt the thing more in five seconds than he had in the past three minutes.

HR.

Another five minutes later, Sailor Jupiter and Mousse were both hardily sick of the Youma. Jupiter still didn't have her communicator to call Sailor Moon to dust the thing, and even with the help of the boy who was fighting along side her she couldn't do enough damage herself to completely destroy the creature. It was at that point in the battle when things changed in the humans' favor, although the event which caused this would normally seem bad.

Mousse had just chucked a fresh volley of chains, when Jupiter's supreme thunder intersected with them, causing Mousse to get a rather severe shock along with the Youma. Luckily, the blind hidden weapons master's first twitch had caused him to let go of his end of the chain, lessoning the shock to his body drastically, however it did leave him punch drunk for a few seconds. The Youma capitalized on the opening, driving one of it's two annoying attackers to the ground.

Jupiter quickly diverted the youma's attention again, and Mousse regained his feet. As he did so however, he began to think. He had been shocked by electricity before, it was an almost inevitable occurrence when one threw large amounts of metal around in a city, and knew how much damage a high enough dose could do. In fact, he'd been working on a technique for using that to his advantage, however he'd never had access to a safe source of high voltage power before.

With a grin, the master of hidden weapons began to run around the Youma, wrapping it in chains. Before the creature could break free, he threw the ends of the chain to Jupiter. The green skirted Senshi looked down at the chain in her hands for a moment, confused, until she got the idea and channeled a supreme thunder attack through the chain. The magical electricity from the attack arced through the Youma and around the chains, until it overloaded its healing ability and the creature fell to dust.

As Mousse began to retrieve the few discarded weapons that weren't broken or melted, the blurred green girl walked towards him. Since the battle was over, he took the time to fish a spare set of his glasses out of his pocket and put them on his face as she stopped in front of him.

"Excuse me…" The girl said, as she came within a few feet of Mousse. He looked up after securing his glasses, and they both stopped in shock for a moment.

Mousse's only thought was that the girl was really cute and that uniform or whatever it was she was wearing was really short. He desperately tried to suppress a nosebleed, thinking of all the times he'd fought Ranma's cursed form when she was half clothed. He began to want to bash his head against the wall when the thoughts of Ranma's cursed form also made him start to blush. Damn it, without Shampoo to fixate on, he was finding it hard to ignore pretty girls… he just hoped Ranma wouldn't figure that out and use it to weaken him during their next battle.

Unlike Mousse, the girl hadn't stopped because she was suppressing a nosebleed. She'd just recognized the man who'd rescued her as the cute waiter who worked at the Peaking Duck. "H… Hi." She squeaked, before clearing her throat. "I… I just wanted to thank you for helping me in that fight." She said, quickly, before averting her eyes.

"It was no problem." Mousse said, managing to pull himself together after the shock of the girl's pretty and scantily clad appearance. Even if he was noticing girls other than Shampoo now, he was NOT Ryoga and would not start acting like an idiot just because one talked to him.

"I should probably leave now." The girl said, running down the alley and leaping to a rooftop. Even with his constant assurances that he wasn't Ryoga and wouldn't pass out with a nosebleed, the inadvertent panty shot the girl had given him almost sent Mousse over the edge. Quickly regaining his composure, the blind man packed the rest of his recoverable weapons into his robes and left the alley.

HR.

On the rooftop, Sailor Jupiter sighed dreamily. Mousse was definitely her type of guy. He could cook, he could fight, and he could even help out in Senshi battles just like Tuxedo Mask. That was it, she was definitely going to catch Mousse, if only to keep Usagi from inadvertently, or deliberately, bragging about her beloved Mamo-chan all the time.

HR.

Down on the street, Mousse suddenly felt a chill down his spine for no adequately explained reason.

HR.

Setsuna Meiou was grinning. This, from what Ranma had seen so far, wasn't unusual. What was unusual however was how the older woman was grinning. The pigtailed martial artist had seen a very similar grin on Nabiki's face whenever she had a scheme on the go. It was the 'I know something you don't' grin, and he would eventually grow to loath it as much as he did cats. "Hey Setsuna, what's goin on?" He asked, casually, as he knelt at his new home's dining room table eating lunch. The day before he'd started out using formal address to talk to her, however she'd almost immediately asked him to just call her Setsuna and given how little he used formal speech he'd easily agreed.

"Oh, nothing." The green haired woman said, the grin still present on her face as she settled down on the other side of the table, picking up a freshly brewed tea pot from where she'd set it only a few moments before and pouring herself a cup. In reality, the green haired woman had just left the house, teleporting to the chamber of the gates of time as she had felt something fundamentally shift about the life of one of the Senshi. As the Senshi of Time, she could feel it when one of the other Senshi hit a turning point in their lives, even if she couldn't look forward to see where the new path lead. Even so, Makoto's chance meeting with Mousse couldn't possibly be something too negative, so she decided to leave it alone.

"You hear me, Setsuna-san?" Came the trailing edge of a question, from a person who the time Senshi hadn't even heard enter the room.

"I apologize… what was that Nodoka-san?" Setsuna asked, shaking her head clear. Unlike with Ranma and Haruka, Setsuna had quickly picked up the fact that her older house guest enjoyed using the more formal forms of Japanese, and even clung to them almost like a security blanket or something, actually feeling uncomfortable when she acted informally.

"I asked if you had finished the tea yet." Nodoka said, sounding concerned. "Are you feeling well?"

"I'm fine, I was just a little distracted." Setsuna said, getting up from the table and carrying her cup and the pot into the living room to resume a conversation she'd been having with Nodoka before hurriedly leaving, using a fresh pot of tea as an excuse to get away and check the gates.

"What was that all about?" Haruka asked, from her position next to Ranma, enjoying a western style lunch she had made. Personally, Ranma couldn't see the appeal in the stuff, especially in such small portions.

He just shrugged. "Got me."

HR.

Outside of the Meiou house, Konatsu crouched in a tree, using all of his ninja abilities to keep himself unseen. This was harder than it sounded, as Ranma wasn't the only person he was worried about avoiding detection by. To his alert senses, the green haired older woman seemed to be observing everything around her with what was almost a martial artist's level of skill, and he could have sworn that she'd almost looked right at him twice in the past two hours. The other two, Ranma's mother and the cross-dressing girl, fortunately had far less observational ability.

As the pseudo-female ninja continued gathering information on the house, he wondered precisely what it was going to be used for. His Ukyo-sama had been acting strangely ever since she'd seen Ranma with the blonde girl a few nights ago, and he was afraid that she'd do something impulsive and rash. Unfortunately, if she did so he would be obliged to follow her. He loved his Ukyo-sama dearly, but sometimes she could be as thick as Ranma.

HR.

Later that night, Ukyo and Konatsu were both sitting up in the same tree the male kunoichi had occupied earlier.

"Are you sure you wish to do this, Ukyo-sama?" The latter asked, unsure.

"I have no choice, you know that Konatsu." Ukyo shot back, checking the sharpness of her battle spatula, creating a small nick in one finger. With a slight hiss, she bandaged the cut and continued. "Besides, Ran-chan… I mean Ranma," she said angrily, "Has moved on pretty damn fast."

"Is that what this is about Ukyo-sama? That girl that Ranma-san was with?" Konatsu asked, confused.

"That's not what this is about!" Ukyo shouted, before calming herself quickly so as to not alert her targets. Turning a glare to Konatsu, she continued. "Now you go after Ranma and I take the girl…" She started, before seeing the look in Konatsu's eyes. "And it's not so that I can get revenge for her stealing Ran-chan, it's because I know I don't have a chance in hell of hurting him!" She snapped.

Konatsu looked at his mistress doubtfully, but orders were orders. "Yes, Ukyo-sama." He said, reluctantly, as he checked over his own gear. "Though I must warn you that I probably cannot defeat Ranma-san either, since last time I only fought him to a draw while under the influence of a mind altering…" He stopped talking when Ukyo glared at him again and merely nodded his head.

Within about ten seconds, Ukyo and Konatsu descended from their tree, heading for the windows that Konatsu had earlier identified as belonging to their respective targets. As the ninja climbed into Ranma's bedroom, he quickly looked around, noticing that the place was far better furnished than the martial artist's room at the Tendo Dojo, and far better looking as well. It was almost a shame that the fight was going to tear it up. Sneaking over to the bed, he pulled a kunai from his sleeve and held it above Ranma's head. Whispering an apology, he plunged it down towards the motionless sleeper…. Only to have it miss as he rolled over to get more comfortable.

After about five minutes of careful strikes, Ranma's pillow was so much fluff on the top of the bed, but the martial artist himself was still sound to sleep. Showing a rare streak of frustration, the kunoichi kicked his target, causing Ranma to roll out of the bed and hit the floor on his feet.

"What's goin on?" The martial artist asked, looking around in a state of sleep muddled confusion. The ninja didn't speak, merely leaping at his target with both hands holding a kodachi that he'd pulled out of nowhere similar to the way Mousse manifested his weapons. It seemed like being attacked woke the former Saotome up quickly, as he blinked his eyes a couple times and asked, "Konatsu? What're you doing here?"

"I am sorry Ranma-san, but I was ordered to do this." The ninja responded, lunging at his target again.

HR.

A couple of rooms over, Ukyo was attempting to sneak her way into Haruka's bedroom. Unfortunately, she wasn't nearly as silent as Konatsu, and Haruka wasn't quite as heavy a sleeper as Ranma. As the okonomiyaki chef looked down on the girl who had stolen her Ran-chan, she tried to fuel a sense of anger. She had never killed before, and the idea was abhorrent to her even with her many years of training to take vengeance on Ranma and his father, but this girl, she tried to convince herself, deserved to die.

She had taken her Ran-chan from her somehow. It seemed that for Ukyo's entire life, someone had been taking things from her. First, her father insisted on training her in the art when other girls were playing with friends and dolls. Then, Ranma had taken her title as the best in the area away, but he'd given her back something else…. He'd been her friend, and she'd really loved him. Then, the jackass had run off and taken her family cart from her and her former 'friends' at school had taken her womanhood with their constant insults. Her anger was growing now. She'd seen how Akane had taken her Ran-chan after she'd finally caught up to him. He'd been her whole life then, and now… And now… She shuddered. She didn't even know what was happening now. It was true that she'd decided to take on the girl because she was at least a half decent fighter and could get in the way of her vengeance on Ranma… a vengeance that she didn't even want… but… With a growl of confused frustration, Ukyo swung her battle spatula down in a wide arc, it's sharp end poised to remove one blonde topped head from its body.

It was at that moment that the small noises Ukyo had been making for the past thirty seconds finally woke Haruka enough for the blonde to realize what was happening. Instinctively, she lashed out with her feet, throwing her unknown assailant across her room and to the ground with a soft gasp. Rolling out of bed and kicking off the blankets, she examined the form that she'd kicked, noticing what looked like a huge spatula strapped to the back of her opponent. This was immediately connected to a name from the stories Ranma had told. "Ukyo…" she muttered, sleepily.

"How do you know my name?" Ukyo asked, surprised, as she caught her breath and hefted her spatula again. Swinging it, she growled in annoyance as Haruka used what looked like one of Ranma's basic dodging techniques to get out of it's way.

"Ranma told me about you…" Haruka said, barely dodging Ukyo's second swing. "Now do you mind telling me why you're trying to kill me?" The blonde was annoyed by this point, but also slightly nervous. According to Ranma's description of his 'old friend Ucchan,' the girl was better than she was by a fair margin, and she looked pissed.

"You… You stole Ran-chan!" Ukyo spat, as she ran at Haruka again.

After a few minutes of fighting, it was official. Ukyo Kuonji was kicking Haruka's ass. Haruka was desperately pulling out every trick that she knew, both her own and what she'd seen of Ranma's, but her opponent just kept countering them. She'd even managed to knock the giant spatula out of the psychotic brown haired girl's hands once, but then she'd started throwing those damned little ones and Haruka had wished that she hadn't.

Ukyo had her battle spatula back now, and was backing a gasping Haruka up against a wall. "Now…" She snarled, panting for breath herself as she spoke through a bloody lip that she had gotten near the beginning of the fight. "You die!"

As her opponent raised her weapon up for the killing blow, Haruka closed her eyes in expectation. She was too tired to try countering again, and she was backed into a corner. She just hoped the other girl would miss or something. She seemed to hear Ukyo's battle spatula coming towards her head, before she heard something else. It sounded like a phrase, whispered so softly as to almost be inaudible but still capable of being heard through the entire room. It sounded like "Dead scream." Opening her eyes, Haruka was shocked to see a ball of green light smash into Ukyo, sending her catapulting into the wall on the other side of the room from the window. Whipping her head around, she saw what looked like the end of a stream of long hair disappearing from sight past the edge of the window frame.

Within seconds, Ranma had charged into the room, knocking the door open and also, by the sound of it, breaking the lock. He looked like hell, with a few cuts along his arms and face, as well as what looked like lipstick marks everywhere and several nasty looking bruises. "Haruka, you okay?" He gasped, coming to a screeching halt as he saw Ukyo laying in a crumpled heap against a wall.

"I'm fine…" Haruka said, however the dozens of aches and pains all over her body told a different story.

Ranma didn't seem to believe Haruka's words, and was across the room almost instantly to examine her. "This don't look fine." He said, pointing to a large gash that bled freely on her shoulder.

As she winced, Haruka had to agree.

"What in the world is going on in here?" Nodoka asked, as she had just come in after hearing all of the noise of the fights. She gasped as she saw Ranma and Haruka's injuries, and then went pale as she saw Ukyo's crumpled form. "What…" She stammered, as Setsuna came up behind her.

"Nodoka-san, perhaps we should wait downstairs." The green haired woman said, gently guiding the auburn haired one from the room. "I'm sure Ranma and Haruka can handle this." She threw Ranma a meaningful glance, which he returned with a thankful one.

HR.

Ukyo woke up to a burning pain all over her body. She'd been just about to kill the girl, when she'd been hit with something… from somewhere. Shaking her head, she opened her eyes to see that she was laying on a bed, with Ranma and the girl, she believed Konatsu had told her that her name was Haruka, glaring down at her.

"Ukyo." Ranma said, levelly. She so wanted to reach up and strangle him at this moment… or was that to hug him?

"I… I guess I failed again, huh sugar?" She asked, resignedly.

"You failed again?" Ranma asked, his level stare turning into a hard glare. "Just what the hell were ya doin, anyways? I told ya that I'd left the Saotome family ta get away from shit like this!" At this point, he'd walked away from the bed and was pacing around, clenching his fists. "I told ya that yer god damned honor feud was with Genma now, and ya come here ta kill Haruka? What the HELL were ya thinkin, Ukyo?" It seemed that Ranma's grammar got worse as he got angrier, Ukyo observed, distantly.

"My father…" She croaked, weakly, beginning to recover from whatever had put her down in the first place.

"Yer father what?" Ranma asked, annoyed.

"My father told me that I had to kill you to get my family honor back… So I could return home…" She said, softly. Before he could continue, she interrupted. "I… I couldn't stand the idea of trying to kill you, Ran-chan… I thought…" She sighed. "I… I don't know what I thought…"

"I'll tell ya what ya thought." Ranma growled, narrowing his eyes. "Ya thought that if ya killed Haruka, I'd go marry ya for some reason. Same stupid reasonin that ya came up with at the wedding."

Ukyo tried to object, even if what Ranma said made sense, when the pigtailed martial artist continued. "Well I'll tell ya what. If ya attack Haruka again, hell if ya LOOK at her funny again, I go down ta your pop's place in Osaka and I level the thing with him in it... 'n then I come back ta get you."

Ukyo let off a soft gasp at the venom in Ranma's words, and Haruka looked uncertainly at the pacing and growling martial artist. "Ranma, calm down." She said, walking in front of him and grabbing him by the shoulder. "What's wrong with you?"

Seeing the concern in Haruka's eyes, Ranma let out a calming breath and then seemed to realize what he'd just said. Suddenly, a flashback went through his brain. He was at the ice rink during the martial arts figure skating fiasco. 'Akane's my Fiancée, and if you lay a hand on her I'll kill you!' Shaking off the image, the martial artist grinned crookedly at Haruka. "Sorry 'bout that, Haruka-chan." He said, his grin widening at her eyebrow twitch. "Ukyo, just get outta here… Konatsu's unconscious in my room. Sorry but I wasn't too gentle on him when I put him out."

Ukyo just nodded shakily, getting to her feet and dragging herself out of Haruka's bedroom. When she was gone, the blonde looked around and frowned slightly. "Well this place is totaled…" she muttered.

"Yeah, I guess it is." Ranma said, frowning as well as he saw that Ukyo's battle spatula had slashed Haruka's bed to pieces. "My room's just as torn up."

"Well… we could get some cold water and the Futon out of your pack, you know, so we'd both fit." Haruka said, waggling her eyebrows. Even if the weirdest thing that had ever happened in her life had just happened tonight, she was still Haruka.

"What?!" Ranma yelped, looking incredulously at her. "I got two futons, you know." He continued, regaining his composure.

"Spoil sport, I say." Haruka grumbled, as she began to walk out of the room.

Ranma just sighed in exasperation before he thought of something. "Oh yeah, thanks to this little incident, We're sparring every day now." He said, with a grin.

Haruka just groaned.

END.

Notes: Damn, the parts with Ukyo were HARD to write. I know they're a little incoherent. That was intentional. I won't say why they're written like that, as if you can't get the meaning from the text then I've failed in doing what I was trying to do. The only hint I'll give is that I always write from the perspective of a character. If you don't get it then just ignore it, and I apologize for my inability to do emotional scenes.

Also, You will start noticing that I take liberties with bits of the SM series in this chapter, if you hadn't noticed already with me making Haruka older than they claim she is in the series. (Snorts,) Just entering high school my ass… Anyways, I'll be toning down the stock series elements, like the transformation sequence that would get any real warrior killed while they're in the middle of it, but the inners will still be prone to making speeches, as if they weren't they wouldn't be the inners. :D

Also, for the moment I ask you to take some things on faith that I DO know what I'm doing. It will really be explained eventually, I promise!

PS: The dead scream was low power.


	15. Chapter 15, Time and contemplation

Note: Please don't read the end notes until after the chapter.

And now that you've read or skipped THAT monster of a note, on with the show!

Chapter 15. Time and contemplation.

Ranma Saotome lay awake in his futon, gazing up into the blackness of an empty room, his mind refusing to give up and go to sleep. Nearby, but a safe distance away, Haruka Tenoh also lay, however the martial artist could tell that she slept deeply by the soft sound of her breathing and the relaxed state of her Chi.

Many of the things that occupied Ranma's mind at the moment had to do with the girl sleeping nearby, and they had all hit him at once, while standing in a half destroyed bedroom, about an hour earlier. He recalled, with regret, the harsh words he had spoken to his oldest friend, Ucchan, and then shook his head. Ucchan was probably not his friend anymore, especially given what he had said to her tonight. He knew that he'd over-reacted, his anger flaring in a way that it almost never did, and that was the problem.

Ranma had seriously threatened to kill two people in his life before this moment. One was Mikado Sanzenin, as he threatened to force himself upon Akane Tendo. The other was Saffron, the king of the Phoenix people and with a great deal of luck he had carried through on that threat, tearing the birdman into hundreds of pieces with a Hiryu Shoten Ha.

He wasn't afraid that he was going to do something similar to Ukyo, he had better control than that, but the only times he had gotten that angry before were directly linked to Akane's protection. He had loved Akane. He knew that, now. He had left Nerima, in part, because of that. The curse, as he had said, had been a big part of it. What man wants his fiancée to flinch away and pretend he's just a friend every time it rained? There had been a lot more to it, though.

If he had admitted that he loved Akane, what would have changed? She was still one of multiple fiancées, all of whom he had honor debts to, and she had a life in Nerima, one that HAD been half way normal before he showed up. He couldn't have taken her with him when he became a Ronin. Their fathers' little plans to get them married, and all of the other crap that had gone on during his stay in Nerima, also contributed to the problems with his and Akane's relationship… but this was just distracting him from the current problem.

He rolled over in his futon, trying to get into a comfortable position. Unknown to him, he had rolled just a little bit closer to Haruka in the movement. He attempted once again to sleep, but the thoughts continued to run around in his head. "I ain't gunna be able ta sleep 'till I get this sorted out, am I?" He muttered to himself, too softly for anyone to hear. Getting up out of his futon, he tip-toed across the room and grabbed his pants, pulling them on. The undershirt he was already wearing would work for training in the middle of the night.

Stepping out the back door of the house, Ranma walked into the middle of the yard and began a slow and relaxing Kata from the art of Tai chi. Since he had very rarely been given time to just sit around and think as a kid, he had developed an almost need to have his body do something while he thought. It was one of the many reasons he kept falling asleep in school.

Letting his body go into auto-pilot, doing a series of Kata that he had done hundreds of times before, Ranma let his mind range back out into the territory it had been in before he got up. He tried to draw his mind away from any further remembrance of Akane, though. This, of course, left him with what had happened earlier in the night again. He would have to see Ukyo as soon as he could. He wasn't going to let this continue and become like his feud with Ryoga, as Ukyo seemed to have little problem with getting rid of Haruka the hard way. He hadn't thought his oldest friend capable of that. Would she really have carried through on it?

Suddenly, a soft sound impinged on Ranma's awareness. It was a rustling, coming from a tree in the yard. Thinking that it could be Konatsu coming back to observe the house, the martial artist quickly ran at the tree, trying his best to hide his advance in the shadows, and spring into the branches. When he got to where the rustling had come from, instead of a quazi-female Ninja, Ranma found a green haired woman in what looked like an abbreviated school uniform looking at the area where he had been practicing with a confused expression.

"Excuse me?" Ranma asked, bemused.

The green haired woman jumped a little on her branch, and would have fallen forward off of it if it weren't for Ranma catching her shoulder. With a feeling that she now knew what Usagi felt like, would feel like, when she started teleporting in behind her in a few months, She resolved not to do that. It almost gave her a heart attack.

"You ain't here ta kill me or marry me are you?" Ranma asked, seeing the woman's silence as an opportunity to get the usual pleasantries out of the way. "If it's 'cuz of a deal between you and Genma Saotome, I ain't his son anymore so You're gunna have to take it out on the Panda."

The green haired woman laughed. "I am here for neither of those reasons, Ranma." She said, not giving him time to ask how she knew his name. "I am Sailor Pluto, one of the Sailor Senshi who defend this city from demons."

Ranma looked surprised as he saw the woman's uniform, and the large heart shaped staff that she was holding. Haruka hadn't been kidding when she talked about these people's uniforms, but if they were magical girls like the ones Nabiki liked to watch on TV when she thought no one was around to see it, he supposed a frilly uniform was sort of part of the job. "So what's one of you Senshi doin' in a tree outside of Setsuna-san's house?" He asked, suspiciously.

"Someone was attacked and almost killed here earlier." Pluto said in a level voice. "The Senshi usually do fight demons, however helping a person who's in a different sort of danger isn't unreasonable, is it?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

As she said that, several things connected in Ranma's mind. When he had rushed into Haruka's room, he had found Ukyo flung against the far wall and out cold. He had thought at the time that Haruka had managed an incredibly lucky shot, or Ukyo had gotten careless in her anger, but a third party knocking her out made a lot more sense, especially since the blow that had done it left bruises similar to being hit with a Moko Takabisha. "You're the one who stopped Ukyo from…" He muttered, giving voice to his thoughts.

"Yes." Pluto nodded.

"Thanks for helpin out." Ranma said, getting a little less suspicious of the intruder in the tree. "And thanks for holdin back when ya hit Ucchan."

Pluto tried to suppress her shock, and succeeded quite aptly. It wouldn't have mattered if she hadn't, anyways, as Ranma couldn't read facial expressions at all when not in a fight. 'Can he somehow read my aura through my disguise field?' She thought, before asking aloud, "How do you know that I was holding back?"

Ranma shrugged. "Because that shot wouldn't have really affected a monster like the ones that are runnin around here."

Pluto simply nodded

"Look." Ranma said, starting to become uncomfortable with the silence. "Thanks a lot for the help, but Ukyo and Konatsu ain't gunna be back tonight and you probably got other things ta do then sit here and watch this place." Pluto smiled, and was raising her staff to begin a teleport when Ranma continued to speak. "Oh, and if ya ever need some help with one of those Demons, I'd be glad ta help."

The Senshi of time smiled. She knew, as well as Ranma did, that the boy didn't stand a chance against the more powerful strains of Youma, but he wasn't going to admit it, and she wasn't going to say it. One thing she knew that he didn't, however, was that he was soon going to get the power to assist the Senshi… or rather, she was. At that moment, Pluto got an idea. She couldn't predict the future at all, but through studying a few alternate plains she knew that Michiru was supposed to summon her henshin pen out of need during an encounter with a Youma. Ranma, however, wasn't Michiru and his mere presence in the area made things hard to predict.

"There is one thing you could do to assist me." The Senshi said, causing Ranma to look at her sharply. For some reason she now reminded him very much of Nabiki. "Take this." She flicked her hand, and produced a small pen with a blue casing and a golden symbol on the top that looked like a trident.

"What is it?" Ranma asked, hesitant to take the object.

"It's a small artifact that could help you if you get into trouble with a demon." Pluto said, perfectly truthfully. "It will not cause you any harm, and you will know how to use it when you need to."

Ranma blinked, and then reached out tentatively to pick the object up off of the woman's hand. This tiny thing could help if he got in trouble with a demon? "This sounds more like you doin somethin for me than me returning a favor." He said, confused.

"Believe me," Pluto responded, "You having this item will help the Senshi out quite a bit."

"Thanks, I guess." Ranma said, uncertainly. Before he could say anything else, the green haired Senshi had lifted her staff and disappeared from the tree. "Neat trick." He muttered, jumping down himself. That last event had pretty well distracted him from his earlier problems, and when he re-entered the house and flopped down on his Futon, he quickly found himself drifting off to sleep.

HR.

Haruka Tenoh was warm. She was comfortable, and safe, and a bunch of other pleasant and reassuring things. The pillow she was laying against was warm, and it's rhythmic moving up and down was quite relaxing. One of her arms was draped over it. In fact, she was pretty well hugging it, and wait… was it hugging her back?

"Aw, isn't that cute." Came a voice, containing a rather large amount of mirth. Haruka's eyes opened slowly, not wanting to give up on the comfort of sleep, to look at what looked like the join between a person's neck and shoulder. She blinked several times, as this wasn't precisely what she was expecting. She'd woken up looking down on someone else's head nestled up against her a couple of times, but this was new. Pulling back, she saw the relaxed and sleeping face of Ranma.

"Ack!" Haruka squeaked as she jumped.

Ranma grumbled a bit, saying something like "Don wanna train t'day pops…" and tightened his hug on Haruka. The snickering came again, and the blonde tomboy looked around to see that two heads, one green haired and the other auburn, were peeking in through the living room door. The auburn haired one, belonging to Nodoka-san, sported a happy smile, while Setsuna was grinning like a madwoman, or one who is far too amused.

"Are you comfortable there, Haruka?" Setsuna asked, her grin growing larger if that was possible.

"Ack!" Haruka said again, her first instinct to push away from Ranma and jump to her feet. Her second one, however, was to relax back into the position she'd woken up in and enjoy it. 'No, bad mind. Very bad.' She scolded herself, however her pondering was interrupted a second later by a new voice.

"Ack!" Ranma squeaked, sounding remarkably like Haruka, and was suddenly on the other side of the room, in a defensive stance, and looking around frantically. Haruka, deprived of her support, thumped down onto her futon, which had somehow ended up next to Ranma's. It was at this point that Setsuna cracked up.

HR.

The four occupants of the house settled down for breakfast about half an hour later, though the occasional snicker could be heard from Setsuna and Nodoka was still smiling. That was, of course, until Ranma spoke up. "I've got to go see Ukyo today." He said, looking at Setsuna. "Could you help me find out where she is?"

Setsuna became serious quite quickly. "Ukyo, is that the girl who broke in here last night?" She asked, levelly.

"Yeah." Ranma said, before thinking of something. "Oh, with the rooms destroyed… I'm sorry about all of that damage." His head lowered. "I thought all of them were left back in Nerima. I guess you might want me to leave."

Setsuna shook her head. "The rooms can be repaired, and I knew of your friends and their habit of destroying property when I offered you the room. As for this Ukyo person, I may have to press charges against her for her actions."

No!" Ranma said, his outburst even surprising himself. All three of the women at the table looked at him, surprised. "A lot of Ukyo's problems were caused by me. I didn't know any other way 'ta handle her, but it's still my fault. Getting her thrown in jail or somethin ain't right."

Setsuna looked contemplative for a moment, and then nodded her head slowly. Nodoka, who really didn't know much of what was going on other than the small glimpse of the battle she'd gotten last night, kept silent. Haruka on the other hand looked confused. "But I thought it was your father who engaged you to Ukyo and stole her cart, or whatever." She snorted. "Your parents were real pieces of work, you know that?"

No one but Setsuna noticed Nodoka's eye twitch at that remark.

"Yeah, it was pop who engaged us and everything, but when she showed up again, ready ta try and kill me, I was the one who made her think the engagement was valid again. There was also some… other stuff." He winced at that, thinking of the mess of the reversal jewel, and the secret sauce, and... He shook his head. "A lot of Ukyo's problems were caused by me, and I'm gunna try 'n even it up with her. It ain't family honor, I gave that up with my name, but it's personal."

Haruka still looked confused, but Setsuna and Nodoka nodded knowingly. It was at this point that the second of the two spoke up. "I know where Ukyo's new restaurant is, Ranma."

Ranma looked at Nodoka in astonishment. "Huh?"

I found the shop a few hours before I found you." She explained. "Ukyo told me about her father's orders to hunt you down and told me that she was trying to avoid you." The woman grimaced. "I didn't tell you because I assumed that she would be successful."

"Wait." Ranma said, surprised. "Y'mean she really WAS ordered to kill me by her pop?" Then he looked down. "Now I really feel like a jerk." He muttered, despondently. He looked at Nodoka. "If you can tell me where the place is, I'll go and see Ukyo later this morning."

The woman nodded. She wished two things at the moment. First, that she could help her son with this, and second, that she could get a hold of Genma again. Beating on him was a very good stress relief. Somewhere in Nerima, a man sneezed, causing him great pain as it jostled several healing, yet broken, bones.

"I'm going with you." Haruka said, causing Ranma to look at her in surprise. "Don't say it," she continued as she saw his mouth open. "I'm going."

Ranma saw the determined expression on her face, and sighed.

"Anyone else wanna come?" He asked, sarcastically. Nodoka was about to respond in the affirmative, before she saw the glare he was leveling around the table at her and Setsuna. She thought that he should really be a bit more polite than that, but got the message.

HR.

In an under-lit office, a man wearing round glasses looked over a list of names. "Hmm…" he muttered, finding everything to be in order. The light gleamed almost sinisterly on the rims of the glasses as he rummaged around in his desk for a pen, however it immediately stopped doing so as he saw a name near the bottom of the list. The reason for this was that the glasses had just fogged up. "K K K Kasumi?!" He squeaked, before beginning to shred the paper.

Outside of the under-lit, due to maintenance problems, office of Dr. Ono Tofu, Professor of Alternative medicine at Infinity Academy, several people wondered at the sound of maniacal laughter.

END.

Notes: First off, this should have been part of the last chapter, really. I chose a bad place to put the cliffie, and I humbly apologize for that.

Secondly, many asked why, in last chapter, Makoto EXITED the alley to transform. Basically, it works like this. She's been on the street a few seconds ago, it's pretty empty. She made sure there was no one within close enough range to get a good look at her face before changing. She didn't know Mousse was mostly blind. So it's either get seen from far away by a civilian on the street who probably won't see much or transform in the middle of an alley in front of a youma and another person who can see you perfectly clearly.

Finally, how many people thought I was talking about Dr. Tomoe in the last scene? Sorry, I couldn't resist.


	16. Chapter 16, A confrontation with a frien

Just FYI, this is another chapter where you should wait 'till after you're done to read the end notes. I know this message may be annoying, but some people DO like reading the notes first.

Wow, another chapter in 24 hours. I expect worship now. BOW!

Nah, just kidding. Have a good read folks!

Chapter 16. A confrontation with a friend and a ninja's heart.

Ranma walked down the street, looking at the signs in the front windows of the stores as he walked past them and fidgeting.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Haruka, who was walking next to him, asked as she noticed his increasing sense of nervousness. "We could just let the police deal with this." Haruka herself wasn't a coward or anything of the sort, however she hadn't grown up or lived in Nerima. Normally, to any sensible person, the response to attempted murder was a swift phone call to the police.

"Look, I told you. I gotta do this my way." Ranma said, stopping with his fidgeting and turning his head to look at her. "If you really want to press charges 'cuz she attacked you, do it when I'm finished… but I'd rather ya didn't."

The blonde looked at the determined look on her companion's face, and sighed. "Fine. Let's find this Ucchan's place."

"Actually, I think we walked right past it." Ranma said, pointing at a glass fronted restaurant with Ucchan's written across the front window in romaji. As he approached the door, he squared his shoulders and muttered something.

"What did you say?" Haruka asked, not sure if she had heard correctly.

"I said, Once more unto the breach." Ranma responded, smirking. "It seems like a good quote."

"I didn't think you liked old English plays." Haruka said, surprised.

Ranma grinned. "Occasionally, Hinako-sensei actually managed to teach us something." He cracked, before becoming more serious and knocking on the door to the restaurant. It was Thursday, and therefore the place should have been open, but he supposed he understood why Ukyo wouldn't want to serve customers today.

A few seconds after Ranma's knock, a Kimono clad Konatsu came to the door and opened it, a large and ugly looking bruise quite visible on the side of his face.

"Hi Konatsu, is Ukyo awake?" Ranma asked, seeming not to take any notice of the Ninja's injury.

Haruka on the other hand, who hadn't seen Konatsu before and especially not beaten up, couldn't resist a whispered comment to Ranma. "What in the world happened to her?"

"Oh, this?" Konatsu asked, having heard Haruka's comment in spite of it's low volume. "I believe it was a rising spin kick, though Ranma-san hit me so quickly that I cannot be sure."

"Ranma scratched the back of his neck sheepishly as he looked at the ninja. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that Konatsu. I guess I hit you too hard."

The ninja shrugged. "I cannot say that I would have acted any differently if Ukyo-sama was endangered." He replied. "The injury should be gone in a couple of days. As for Ukyo-sama, she is up in her bedroom. She is expecting you."

Ranma began to head for the back of the shop, where he could see a set of stairs leading to an upper level. Haruka was about to follow him when he turned around to face her. "Stay down here with Konatsu." He said, and as she was about to respond, continued. "I wanna talk to Ukyo alone."

Haruka slowly nodded, partially because she wanted to talk to this Konatsu person and find out precisely what would make Ranma hit a girl as hard as he had hit her, and why she was being so casual about it.

When the pigtailed boy had disappeared up the stairs to Ukyo's room, Konatsu started heading for a second exit from the main restaurant. "Hey, where are you going?" Haruka asked, as she followed.

"Ranma-san may have wished for privacy for his conversation with Ukyo-sama, however I feel it would be best if I monitored the situation to ensure that it doesn't become volatile."

Haruka was confused about the ninja girl's comment, until she followed her into a back room with a cot, a small box for clothing and a set of high quality surveillance equipment. She did a double take. Yep, the surveillance equipment was still there. "What the…" she gasped, as Konatsu sat down and picked up a headset.

"You aren't spying on their conversation, are you?" Haruka asked, not sure whether to be outraged or simply surprised.

In answer, Konatsu shoved a second set of headphones into her hands. "If you are quiet, you may listen as well."

Bemused, Haruka slipped the earphones over her ears. This was definitely not a very honest thing to do, but Ranma had been acting oddly since the attack the night before, and this Ukyo, from Ranma's stories about her, didn't seem the type to try and kill another person out of the blue. She wanted answers, damn it, and she wasn't particularly picky about how she got them.

HR.

Ranma opened the door to the small apartment above the new Ucchan's with a feeling of trepidation. He could admit, now, that the way he'd left Ukyo in Nerima, with one short and quick message, had been to avoid this exact confrontation. It'd been sure proof that Genma was his father.

Looking around the room on the other side of the door, the pigtailed martial artist was confronted with the sight of Ukyo, sharpening a shuriken spatula with a small stone. "I hope that ain't for me." He said, causing her head to whip up. Her eyes were bloodshot, and it looked like she'd been crying for quite a while when she got home the night before.

The Okonomiyaki chef snorted. "I doubt I could hit you if I tried." She muttered, darkly.

"I found out that you weren't lying about your father sending you after me." Ranma replied, stepping further into the room and sitting on a chair next to the entrance. "What I don't get is why you went after Haruka rather than me."

"It doesn't matter, you stopped me anyways." Ukyo said, in a dead seeming voice, as if she didn't care about anything.

"It does matter, Ukyo!" Ranma snapped, angrily. "Haruka was a non-combatant. You shouldn't have gotten her involved! Martial arts are to protect the weak, remember?"

Ukyo's face, which had previously sported an apathetic look, quickly twisted with rage. "Non-combatant? She took you from me! First It was Akane, and then her. I saw how you were hugging her on that date you two had on the weekend."

"Ukyo…" Ranma sighed, shaking his head. "Look. I know that when you first showed up and tried ta kill me, I stuck my foot in my mouth and managed to convince ya that the engagement could still work, but I thought you'd get it through yer head that I wasn't gunna marry you after I left my family, and Akane, just to get away from the engagements!"

"So that whole time…" Ukyo breathed. "It… You never…" Suddenly, the girl blurred into motion, chucking the spatula she had been sharpening at him. As she did this, she shouted "Bastard!" The spatula zinged through the air, slicing through Ranma's shirt at the collar and missing his pigtail in back by about half a centimeter. Ukyo gaped in shock as she saw a cut open up on the side of his neck. "You… you didn't dodge."

"No, I didn't." Ranma said, mentally breathing a sigh of relief. He wasn't completely sure that she had aimed that spatula badly. 'Note to self, don't do something that stupid again.' He thought, however it seemed to have impacted Ukyo profoundly. Reaching up to his neck, the martial artist felt a sharp stinging, however the cut was only deep enough to penetrate flesh, like a really big paper cut, for the most part. "Yeah, I guess ya got a right ta be pissed at me for that." He said, as the girl just stared in shock at the hand that had just chucked the weapon.

Deciding to take advantage of her silence, Ranma continued. "Ya think that I was leading you on the whole time in Nerima. Hell, I guess I was, and I can't really apologize much for that. As pathetic as it sounds, I had a reason."

"A reason?" Ukyo asked, getting a bit of her speaking ability back. "What POSSIBLE reason could you have for doing that?" Her shock was giving way, and a healthy dose of anger was creeping back into her voice. As Akane had occasionally found, being angry was far easier than feeling guilty or sad, which were the only other two emotions prevalent in her mind at the moment.

"Look, I had a reason. At least let me tell ya before ya start screamin again. At least that way you'll be screamin for the right reasons." Ranma said, with a small grin that faded quickly. "Y'know that Ryoga showed up in Nerima a few months before you did. You heard pretty much the whole story about him. Was my friend in junior High, then when I missed a fight that he was three days late for, he started huntin me down and ended up tryin to kill me for two years straight."

"What's this got to do with me?" Ukyo asked, evidently getting impatient.

"Well look, think about it. Ryoga used ta be my friend, then shows up hungry for blood. I barely remembered him from school, but it still kinda hurt ta have him trying to kill me, y'know? Then you show up, waving that big spatula around and challenging me to a fight."

Ukyo winced, recalling that particular fight. Some parts of it, such as Ranma's ripping open of her chest wrappings, were pretty damned embarrassing.

The pigtailed martial artist continued. "Anyways, We all found out 'bout the engagement mess, and I had two choices, as far as I could tell, by that point. I either acknowledge the engagement, or ya keep trying to kill me like Ryoga was." He shrugged. "I donno, maybe someone else coulda found some other way ta get out of it, but those were the only options I could see, and unlike Ryoga, I remembered you. You were my best friend. After pop grabbed me and started hauling me across Japan, ya were one of my happiest memories. Hell, I forgot about my mother completely, and I still remembered my buddy Ucchan. I guess I thought if I took the engagement, I could put it off 'till you found another guy ya liked."

Ukyo blinked, then blinked again. If it had been anyone but Ranma who had said that, while she was looking directly at his straight face, she would have found that story to be the biggest crock of bull she'd ever heard. Then again, all of this made a strange sort of sense. She remembered all of the times that Ranma had somehow managed to get her paired up with Ryoga during group activities, and all the times he called her "buddy" and other names that weren't exactly meant for one's betrothed. She was still angry with him, yes, but all of this just made her start to laugh. It wasn't a very pleasant sounding laugh, though. Every once in a while, the words "Best friend" could be heard mixed in.

Ranma looked uncertain as Ukyo laughed, getting up from his seat and walking over to her.

"Stupid, stupid Ranchan…" Ukyo said, before the laughter turned into a set of racking sobs.

"Erm, Ukyo." Ranma said, uncertainly, as he reached for the brown haired girl's shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled, swatting his hand away. He sighed and returned to his chair, letting Ukyo cry herself out. When the sobs died down, she muttered something quietly under her breath.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, not quite hearing.

"I said I won't try anything else against you. Not like I have a chance to begin with." After saying this, the chef looked directly into his eyes. "But I want you to know this, Ranma. All of the problems with us in Nerima weren't your fault, I know that. Even still, I don't think I'll see you again after this conversation."

Ranma nodded, grimacing. "Look, I know this has fucked up your life almost as bad as it did mine, but ya still have a restaurant and stuff. You'll be all right, right?"

Ukyo sighed. "You really shouldn't try and cheer people up, Ranma."

"Huh?" Ranma asked, confused.

"When I tell my father that I couldn't get rid of you," she explained, "I'm going to be cast out of my clan for causing dishonor. Then let's not forget that after you, I'm not likely to find a guy who's worth anything."

Ranma was surprised at both statements. He thought she was still angry at him, so what was with the compliment all of a sudden? "Well, I dono what to do about yer father. Ya could always get him to come here and try ta take me out himself." He smirked. "Guaranteed, I'd take 'im in five seconds."

Ukyo found herself smiling at Ranma's usual arrogant bravado, before stamping the expression down and replacing it with a neutral look.

"And as for guys, There's always Konatsu." Ranma said, not sounding at all like he was joking.

Ukyo snorted. What was Ranma trying to pull? "Konatsu?" She asked, incredulously. Ranma shrugged, as if to ask why not. "Konatsu's like a nicer, less pushy Tsubasa." At Ranma's uncomprehending look, she continued. "Besides, he acts so much like a girl all the time, it's weird."

"This from the girl who wanted to marry the guy who changes gender with water." Ranma drawled, unsure how his casual comment meant to cheer Ukyo up somehow had ended up as a discussion of her love prospects. "Besides, he and Tsubasa kinda remind me of you and Shampoo. I mean, one's over-enthusiastic and pushy, and the other one just stands there and would practically do anythin for you. Well, I guess you and Shampoo before the wedding, at least…" He simply couldn't imagine Konatsu throwing bombs if he had married Ukyo.

"I seriously think you should leave now, before I change my mind about blaming you for things." Ukyo said, half jokingly, her hand twitching for her battle spatula.

"O, Okay." Ranma said, looking nervous. "But ya know where ta find me if ya change your mind about not talkin ta me again." He said, before leaving the room and shutting the door. "What the hell just happened?" He muttered, walking down the stairs.

HR.

Haruka took off the headphones, feeling at once intensely confused and like she'd heard something she really shouldn't have. She'd known that Ranma's life had been a mess, but this was just insane. To her right, she saw the girl, or rather from what she'd just heard, and careful observation, the boy clutching one of his headphones while a stream of tears rolled down his cheeks. "Are… you all right?" She asked, slowly. It was a stupid question, she knew, but she had to ask.

"Just… like Tsubasa?" Konatsu breathed, not responding to Haruka's question. Unsure of what to do, the blonde patted him on the shoulder, trying to comfort him, before she heard the sounds of Ranma's feet tromping down the last few steps into the restaurant. One thing was for sure, she DID NOT want him to find her sitting here with a bunch of listening equipment. In fact, she felt pretty lousy for using it to listen to the conversation in the first place.

"I… have to go, sorry." She said, standing and setting her headphones on the top of the device. Konatsu merely nodded, not paying attention.

As Haruka exited Konatsu's small storeroom, She saw Ranma standing there and looking confused. "What happened?" She asked, playing dumb.

"I'm not really sure." Ranma responded. "C'mon, I don't think Ukyo wants me hangin around here."

"Did you get things straightened out with her so that she won't attack me in my sleep?" Haruka asked, as the two exited the building.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you're getting out of the extra training." Ranma said, his usual good mood returning slowly as he distanced himself from Ucchan's. He looked back once before the two turned around a corner, obscuring the shop from view.

After the two were out of sight, a third figure exited from the front door of Ucchan's. It looked inside briefly, and then walked down the street.

HR.

Ukyo left the apartment above Ucchan's, walking down the stairs and into the main room. She grimaced as she saw the mess the room was in, a remnant of her adventure the night before when she had neglected to clean up after closing. She grabbed a mop to start cleaning the floor, and then called for Konatsu to give her a hand. "Konatsu, where are you?" She muttered, as he didn't come to her after about a minute. she leaned the mop against the counter and went to Konatsu's room.

"Konatsu, why didn't you answer?" She asked, as she opened the door. Seeing the room's contents, her hands dropped to her sides in astonishment. His cot was gone, along with his box of clothes. "Konatsu?" She asked, not believing what she saw. Where the bed was before was a small note. It said that Konatsu had gone on a training trip and would be back soon. That didn't make sense. He never left without asking, or at least telling, her before hand. Usually it was almost a day in advance.

As she looked around the room again, she saw the listening equipment leaning against a wall, one pair of headphones laying on the corner. Nabiki had given Konatsu her old surveillance system after upgrading it at the Dojo. Apparently she owed him a favor. To Ukyo, the fact that she had a surveillance system in the Dojo was a bit scary, but she really didn't care too much. Konatsu usually used the device to listen at the windows for intruders, some sort of paranoid ninja thing. This time, however, he had obviously heard something much different. "Oh Konatsu…" she said, sighing. He would be back soon, she hoped.

HR.

In the streets of Juuban later that night, Konatsu let off a massive sneeze. He was beginning to see why Ranma disliked rain so much. He hadn't put much thought into his packing when he left Ukyo-sama's restaurant, and didn't have an umbrella. Add to that the Kimono he was wearing, which absorbed water rather readily, and he was one cold Kunoichi.

He wasn't really leaving Ukyo-sama, at least not permanently. He was her servant, after all. Even so, what she'd said to Ranma disturbed him. He had met Tsubasa Kurenai. He was a repulsive little hyper-active pervert. The idea of being even loosely compared to that pink… thing… was pretty disturbing, and by Ukyo-sama, no less. If she saw him that way, no wonder she didn't love him. He had to somehow find a way to make Ukyo-sama see him more as himself, as the person who loved her and would do anything for her. At that moment he let off yet another sneeze. Well, right now he'd settle for some shelter.

As if in answer to his thought, Konatsu found himself in front of the steps to a large Shinto shrine. He'd heard somewhere that the keepers of shrines occasionally let travelers stay for a night. It was worth a try, especially since he would freeze from the cold if he didn't get inside soon.

It took him a while to get up the stairs, however when he did he quickly made his way to the front door and knocked. The response was a long time in coming, and he was about to knock again when the door opened. "Hello." Said a short old man, a bit taller than Happosai and Cologne, as he surveyed the dripping Kunoichi in the doorway. "Can I help you?"

"I… I was wondering if you would allow me to stay the night." Konatsu asked, as concisely as he could with chattering teeth.

The old man looked his visitor over. Despite the clothing, his old eyes picked out the signs that Konatsu was a boy. 'Oh well, this one isn't a shrine maiden.' He thought, but seeing the boy shivering he made a quick decision. "Yes, you can stay the night. Now come on in and we'll get you dried off."

"Thank you, priest-san." Konatsu said, entering the shrine.

"None of that now, call me grandpa!" The old man said, as the door slid shut, sealing out the weather.

END.

Hi all. This chapter's one of the main reasons I took so long with this story in particular. The other being writer's block. Ranma and Ukyo's confrontation, and how to handle it, was a major thought on my mind for the past two weeks. Some of you may disagree, thinking Ukyo forgave too quickly or Ranma took too much or too little blame. I tried, and this is honestly how I think this would have happened, especially since, no matter how much I DO like her, I think Ukyo's a bit on the unbalanced side. Her arc is FAR from over!

Wow, this fic's getting pretty big. Ranma, Kasumi and Tofu are at infinity Academy, Makoto's got the hots for Mousse and I'm sure you all know where Konatsu is right now. Ryoga and Kuno are wandering around, and what's Shampoo up to? The plot of this fic is starting to scare me. Why won't my characters be nice to me and chose less complex plot lines? (Cries.)


	17. Chapter 17, Here’s… Konatsu? Wait, that’

Well, if you want more Ranma and Haruka in this chapter, I'm afraid you're out of luck. I hope you enjoy it anyways, though.

Chapter 17, Here's… Konatsu? Wait, that's not right.

Rei Hino was not a morning person. She wasn't grumpy in the mornings, or at least not unless Usagi showed up, but she wasn't particularly coherent. This is why, when she stumbled into the Shrine's living room this morning, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Slumping down at the table, she waited until someone placed a bowl and a cup in front of her. "Thanks Grandpa." She said, sipping the glass of juice that had just been placed.

"You're welcome, but I believe you're thanking the wrong person." Rei's grandfather said, from across the table.

"Hmm?" Rei asked, looking up and blinking her eyes clear of sleep to see a girl standing next to her, having just placed her food down. She was wearing a set of the clothes Rei usually wore while tending the shrine, a White Kimono and Red Hakama, and began to blush and look down as Rei looked at her. As the girl's face colored red, Rei noticed a bruise on one side. It looked pretty old, but it had evidently been large. "Oh, hello." Rei said, lamely. "My name's Rei. Erm, glad to meet you." She had just spent about a minute ignoring this girl. She probably thought she was pretty rude.

"I am Konatsu. Greetings, Rei-san." The girl said, bowing deeply.

"Konatsu-san is staying with us for a while." Rei's grandfather interjected, trying to loosen the accidental tension. "He will be helping me maintain the grounds until he finds another place to go."

"What am I, chopped liver?" Yuuichiro asked, as he walked into the room from taking out the trash.

"No, you're just lazy!" Rei's grandfather said, happily. Yuuichiro just groaned.

Somewhere in her mind, Rei noticed that her grandfather had referred to Konatsu as he, but then dismissed it as the old man just acting strange, as usual. Judging from the bruise on her cheek, and the docile and quiet way she spoke, Konatsu was probably a woman who had been beaten up on the street or something and, true to form as the priest of a shrine, her grandpa was offering her help. "It'll be good to have someone other than Yuuichiro around to talk to." Rei said, brightly. The aforementioned wanna be rock star keeled over in the background, pretending to be grievously injured. Rei and Konatsu both laughed at that.

HR.

Later that day, Rei hummed softly as she moved through the chores of cleaning the fire room. She or her grandfather were the only ones who were allowed to maintain the fire, and Konatsu and Yuuichiro were both busy in other parts of the shrine. Thinking about Konatsu, she had to smile slightly. The girl had been a big help all day, and was definitely earning her keep. She was amazingly acrobatic, and had actually leapt up to the ceilings of many of the rooms to clean them. When she had asked how she did that, the quiet girl had only said something about Ninja arts. Rei had laughed, thinking she was joking, but Konatsu kept her face so straight that she wasn't sure.

After clearing away a large amount of charred wood from the base of the perpetually burning fire in the middle of the room, Rei brushed off her hands and coughed. While she loved her job as a priestess most of the time, there were parts of it that she could definitely do without. "Ugh, I need a bath." She muttered, seeing that a collection of soot stains spread up both of her arms.

As she came to the bathroom, Rei noticed that the occupied sign was put up, but peaked in anyways. The only thing in the dirty clothes hamper was a copy of her own clothing, which meant Konatsu was the one in the bath. She had always liked company in the furo, and had occasionally gone to bath houses with the other Senshi. Deciding that she'd join the shrine's new tenant, the black haired girl entered the bathroom and began to disrobe.

HR.

Sitting in a nice, hot bath, Konatsu let himself relax. This luxury was pure heaven. Ucchan's, even the new one, didn't really have room for a proper furo, only a western style shower stall. He couldn't believe that Hino-san, the old shrine priest, could be such a nice person as to let him stay. He was almost as generous as Ukyo-sama.

The effeminate boy winced. He'd done it again. He really didn't want to think of Ukyo-sama at the moment, at least not until he had time to sort out the problem of trying to get her to see him as more than a "Kinder, less pushy Tsubasa." Granted, she did say two compliments before the insult, but still, he knew what she meant. She could never love Tsubasa, and therefore she could never love him.

Sinking back into the bath water with an only marginally contented sigh, the male Kunoichi heard the sound of someone standing in the outer room, moving around. Who was there? It was probably Hino-san. But, what if it wasn't? That Yuuichiro boy would be alright as well. In Konatsu's opinion, he deserved a shock after spending a decent part of the day ogling him. But, what if it was Rei-san? He had heard what happened to boys when girls walked in on them. Ranma had told him during a visit to Ucchan's one day. They got statues smashed over their heads!

He'd better hide, just in case it was Rei, and then sneak out past her. Looking around, the ninja quickly discovered that the bathroom was painted completely white, and there were no convenient crannies to wedge himself in. A quick glance at the window showed that it was one of the type that is just a pain of glass inset into the wall, and besides that, he didn't want to go running around outside nude. Sighing, he decided just to do what he should have thought of from the beginning, and ask who was there. During his scanning of the room, Konatsu had risen part way out of the bath tub, and as he opened his mouth to ask who was there, his time ran out. The door opened, and Rei marched in with a towel held in front of her. 'Too late!' came the thought, running through Konatsu's head as he and Rei stared at each other for a moment. Distantly, his mind noted that she wasn't nearly as attractive as Ukyo-sama, but she was also three years younger, so it should probably be expected.

Seeing no way out of his situation, Konatsu employed another thing that Ranma had told him about. Ranma, as a, sometimes overly, proud martial artist had regarded this technique with a large amount of scorn. For the relatively self effacing Konatsu however, it seemed the perfect move to use in this situation.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The ninja cried, bowing rapidly while at the same time covering his groin And clenching his eyes shut.

Rei just stood there, confused. There was a nude boy in her bath tub, but it wasn't her grandfather or Yuuichiro. Also, he looked oddly familiar. She caught herself blushing. He was also kinda cute, if a bit too skinny and delicate. What was she thinking, this guy had broken into her house's bathroom, for some reason… and where was Konatsu? That was when the boy began frantically bowing and saying "I'm sorry," over and over again. His voice was familiar, in fact it was the same as Konatsu's, and the next time he stood from one of his bows, she saw the prominent bruise on one cheek. "Konatsu?" She asked, faintly.

"Yes, Rei-san?" The boy asked, tentatively, his eyes still closed. Where was the impending doom?

"Please leave now." Rei continued, flatly.

"Yes, Rei-san." Konatsu said, quickly edging past her and out the door. The Senshi of mars let out a short, sharp breath. She had really wanted to smack him into next Tuesday, but somehow she couldn't do it with him bowing and apologizing like that. One thing was for sure, though. She was going to have a LONG talk with him when she was done her bath.

HR.

Shampoo stood on the deck of a rocking fishing boat, staring back at the shores of Japan as they gradually receded. She had failed. Her Airen had somehow managed to escape her, but she wasn't giving up. She would be back, with assistance. The other tribal elders wouldn't be nearly as easy to deter as her great grandmother. The thought that the old woman had been balked by a single declaration from Ranma made her furious. She had seen him fight, had seen him kill Saffron. He was a magnificent warrior, outflanking the phoenix king at every turn, even if it was only by a small margin.

He was the best martial artist of the outside world, and she was the best of the Amazon tribe. She would have him, come hell or high water.

Narrowing her eyes, she spoke his name. "Ra... Meow!" The purple haired cat lay sputtering on the deck, hissing at the water below.

HR.

Rei stepped out of the bathroom, drying her hair and grabbing the extra set of clothes that she'd laid out before she entered. She noted that Konatsu's clothes were gone from the dirty clothes basket. 'He must have forgotten to bring clean ones in.' She thought, before realizing that Konatsu was, in fact, a he and wearing priestess robes. As the black haired girl left the bathroom, she saw her grandfather walking up the hall towards her.

"Grandpa, I want to talk to you!" She snapped, causing the old man to look at her, surprised.

"Is there something wrong, Rei?" The old man asked, calmly.

"Why didn't you tell me Konatsu was a boy?" The fire Senshi asked, deciding to be direct.

"I did." The old man replied, and continued when his granddaughter looked at him flatly. "Didn't you notice me referring to him as a boy every time I talked about him?"

"I… I…" Rei stammered, then blushed. She had noticed, but hadn't really thought about it. "All right, then tell me why you gave him some of my clothes, that's pretty weird." She finally said, her temper, which she hadn't quite been able to bring herself to unleash against the frantically apologizing Konatsu earlier, finally beginning to boil up.

The old man sighed, and turned serious. Most of the time he was a pretty carefree individual, much to Rei's annoyance, but when he became serious she listened. "Rei, at a Shinto shrine, we have to help anyone in need. He was soaked, and so were his clothes."

Rei sighed in exasperation. "I didn't ask why you gave him clothes, I asked why you gave him GIRLS clothes!"

"Did you notice how comfortable he was in them? You didn't even notice he was a boy. Last night he showed up in a women's Kimono, and it took me a second look to figure out that he was a boy. This morning, I left a set of yuuichiro's clothes and a set of yours in his room." He shrugged. "He chose yours. He's a perfectly nice person from what I can tell of him, regardless."

"But… the bath…" Rei sputtered, somehow thinking that she was losing an argument.

"Yes, you walked in on him in the bath. He really shouldn't be forgiven for that." Her grandfather said, chuckling.

Rei sighed. "I really shouldn't be mad, should I?" She asked, sullenly.

"Nope." Mr. Hino said, walking down the hall and whistling merrily.

"Grandpa…" Rei sighed, before heading for the living room, where Konatsu was sitting demurely. It was strange. In her clothes, it was really hard to tell that he was a boy. Now that she knew, she could see the signs, but still. "Hello Konatsu." Rei said, sitting across the table from him.

"Hello Rei-san. Are you going to hit me over the head with the statue now?" Konatsu asked, looking nervous.

"Am I going to do what?" Rei asked, Astonished.

Well, Ranma-san told me that when his Fiancée accidentally walked in on him in a bath once, she hit him over the head with a statue." Konatsu said, blushing. Belatedly, he remembered that Ranma had also said something about having compared his cursed form's bust size to Akane's. Silently, he resolved that he wouldn't mention that he thought Ukyo-sama was better built than Rei-san… ever.

Rei laughed. "I think this Ranma person was playing a joke on you, Konatsu."

"You've never met Ranma-san." Konatsu said, deadpan.

"Okay then, tell me about him." Rei said, chuckling. 'Grandpa was right.' She thought, "Konatsu may be a little strange, but he's nice enough… though if something like this happens again I may go looking for a statue."

Konatsu began to tell Rei the little bit he knew about Ranma, skipping the curse, of course. From there, the subject changed to Ukyo, and eventually to why he had been wandering around in a rainstorm the night before.

Rei knew that Minako and Makoto would have been cooing over how romantic Konatsu's quest to impress Ukyo was. Well, Minako would. Makoto had been acting a little strange lately. Rei herself, however, found it a little stupid. Fortunately she had the good sense not to say so.

"Rei-chan." Came her grandfather's call from the living room door. "did you forget about your chores?" The shrine maiden looked up at the clock on one wall, and found that she'd been talking to Konatsu and listening to his stories about his Ukyo-sama for a solid two hours. "Oh, right. Sorry grandpa!" She said, jumping up from the floor.

"I will help." Konatsu said, joining her. The old man smiled, and winked at his grand daughter. Rei blushed and growled at him.

He just laughed.

HR.

He was in pain. His nerves were on fire, but there was a cool and pleasant feeling on his forehead, and he could sense a steady stream of chi flowing into his body from some external source. "Wh… what happened?" He croaked, trying to crack his eyes open.

"Shhhh," came the voice of a woman, from above him. "Just rest."

He, being a stubborn person, forced himself up to a sitting position and cracked his eyes open again. "What happened?" He asked again, in a slightly stronger voice.

"That's what I wanted to ask you, Happi." Came the woman's voice, which belonged to an elderly white haired woman sitting on a high stool next to the bed.

"Co-chan?" Happosai asked, surprised. "You nursed me back to health? Why?"

"Don't ask me, pervert." The old woman said, before reaching into her robe and pulling something out. "Getting this wasn't easy or pleasant." She continued, tossing the object to him. He looked at it, and then jumped away like it was burning.

"Get that away from me!" Happosai cried, cowering in a corner of the bed. The only thing he could think about was the last two times he'd glomped a girl.

"What?" Cologne asked, her already far too large eyes popping wider.

"No, I'll never steal a panty again, I promise! Just get it away!" He yelped, looking positively terrified.

"Did the old pervert just say what I think he did?" Asked Mousse, who was closing down the restaurant before he heard this unusual statement.

"It appears that he did…" Cologne replied, astonished. Though she didn't like to admit it, she was worried about Happosai. His Chi seemed to be draining more slowly than it should, but he still needed a recharge every once in a while or he would begin to sicken within a week. "Happi, what in the world happened to you?"

HR.

Ryoga huffed in exertion as he skidded around a corner. He was running through the streets of some city he couldn't identify. This wasn't precisely abnormal, but this time he was running away from something. Namely, the angry Americans. This was all Ranma's fault, he knew it. He'd make him pay no matter what he had to do. Hearing the swishing and whooshing sound of the strange gate thing behind him, he started to run again. This wasn't fair! They just kept catching up with the gate. He could never stop or they'd get him. He didn't want to think of what they'd do when they did.

As the pig cursed martial artist ran off, the shimmering blue portal that had suddenly appeared in the air behind him spat out a team of four people.

"He is over there!" a large black man, with a strange golden thing imbedded in his forehead, yelled as he pointed at the rapidly fleeing Ryoga.

"all right, let's get him." a graying older man with American Colonel's rank insignia ordered, as he began to run. a blonde woman quickly followed, while the brown haired man with glasses huffed a little before following her. Funny enough, the group wasn't actually after Ryoga to hurt him. He'd somehow co-opted the navigation system of their stargate when he ran amok in the SGC complex, and they just wanted to examine him and try to reverse what he'd done. Unfortunately, Ryoga didn't speak English very well, so couldn't understand their calls.

"Leave me alone!" He yelled, as he skidded around yet another corner, smashing into a barrel full of rain water.

"Hey, it's the pig again." The blonde woman said, as she walked around the corner. Ryoga's pack and clothes had somehow managed to slide on their own inertia into a shadow, so all she saw was the animal. "I swear he's following us."

"Yeah, he wants me to cook 'im." The graying man said, grinning.

"You're not cooking him, colonel." The blonde woman said. This was apparently an old argument.

"We appear to have lost the target." The man with the symbol on his forehead said.

"Great, where did he dump us this time?" The Colonel asked, as the group began to walk down the street, the woman carrying the pig.

END.

Notes: There ya go, people. If you're wondering about Rei's not screaming bloody murder at Konatsu, just imagine him doing the crouch of the wild tiger. Yeah, now I think you get it.

Oh, and next chapter we return to mostly Ranma and Haruka. I just had to handle Konatsu now, or try and do it with flashbacks. I hate flashbacks. I thought I'd add in the other characters' status at the same time. Hope you like it!


	18. Chapter 18, Pervs and Strings

Chapter 18, Pervs and strings.

Ranma woke again feeling comfortably warm, cuddling a soft pillow. "Oh no, not again." She thought, but the thought wasn't nearly as resigned and negative as she thought it properly should be. This morning was the fourth morning in a row that she, or in the first three cases he, had woken up in the position that she occupied now. That position being cuddled up against Haruka and using her as a giant teddy bear. She'd thought that putting the coffee table between them last night would have stopped it. Looking around she sighed in exasperation as she saw that she'd somehow rolled under it, knocking a glass of water that had been accidentally left there the night before off onto herself.

"What's the matter Ranma, aren't you comfortable?" Haruka, who had probably been awakened by the pigtailed martial artist's movement, asked as she yawned.

Ranma blushed. Haruka's reactions made this about five times more embarrassing. The first two times it had happened she'd been as shy as he about the whole thing, but yesterday she'd started joining Setsuna in the ranks of the suggestive comment throwers.

Ranma just got up, grabbing a set of clothes and leaving the room. The blonde just sighed in pseudo-disappointment and got up herself. Truthfully, she'd been just as embarrassed as Ranma, but she had to admit that this was a really enjoyable way to wake up. Too bad their rooms were going to be repaired today.

HR.

About twenty minutes later, the four occupants of the house were sitting around a table eating breakfast when Setsuna started her first salvo. "So, did it happen again?" She asked, already knowing the answer from the remnants of a blush that were on the now male Ranma's face. Haruka and Ranma both nodded. The older woman clucked her tongue in seeming disapproval. "Hmm." She mumbled, as she brought her cup of tea up to her lips. After taking a sip, she spoke. "Perhaps we should have ordered a double bed rather than the two singles?"

Ranma choked on a slice of the sushi he was eating, and Haruka reached over to pat him on the back and dislodge it.

It was at this point that Nodoka spoke for the first time in the morning. "Oh, I don't think that would be proper until they are married, would it Setsuna-san?" It was at this point that Haruka spat her glass of water across the table, the flying liquid missing Ranma for once.

The pigtailed martial artist himself just did a double take. Had that been his mother who'd just said that? "Aunt Nodoka, are you feeling alright?" He asked, uncertainly.

"Oh, I'm fine Ranma, why?" Nodoka asked, curiously.

"Erm, it's nothing." Ranma responded, noticing that the woman was hiding a grin behind her cup, evidently at Haruka's reaction.

HR.

Kasumi hummed merrily as she set the last plate down on the table and sat to eat.

"Thanks, Kasumi-chan." Unazuki Furuhata, the younger of the two Furuhata children, said as she picked up a forkful of the western style eggs the eldest Tendo had made.

"Yeah, this is good." Her older brother, Motoki, said as he finished a bite of his own.

The eldest Tendo daughter blushed. She was used to people just taking her food for granted most of the time and scarfing it down. Granted, Ranma was usually really grateful for it but somehow she thought that if you gave Ranma a piece of shoe leather he'd start eating it, and probably enjoy it. The image of Ranma taking a set of chopsticks to a pair of shoes caused her to giggle slightly.

"What is it, Kasumi?" Motoki asked.

"Oh, nothing." Kasumi returned, starting on her own meal. It'd been a week since she had arrived in Juuban, and school was starting tomorrow. So far, she'd been doing pretty well what she'd done at home, even if on a grander scale, in the restaurant. Tomorrow though, she was going to start school again. It was college rather than high school, but that made her even more nervous.

"I'm going to go enjoy my day off." Unazuki said, as she pushed her plate away. "Thanks a lot for breakfast."

Kasumi nodded, and then quickly went to get a second plate of bacon and eggs for Motoki. It was about three minutes later when the two heard the scream.

HR.

He had been searching constantly ever since his arrival in this god forsaken ward, and still nothing. The foul sorcerer had hidden her well, truly. He missed his Akane-chan terribly, but he had to find the pigtailed girl, or Saotome.

If he found his other love perhaps she would be free of the sorcerer's enchantment. If the latter, he could finish what he had started during his climactic battle. He couldn't really remember the battle, but he must have had it. After all, the insidious fiend had run from him. Perhaps he'd finally been overwhelmed by the might of Kuno from a distance, and run without the fight. Yes, that must have been it.

The blue thunder's eyes caught on a flash of red in the road in front of him. He quickly fixed his attention on it. That… monster! How could he have done this?! "Pigtailed girl!" He yelled, running towards the girl.

The red haired girl turned, surprised, to see Kuno charging at her. She backed up, a scared look crossing her face.

"Oh, what a wondrous day 'tis today!" Kuno cried, embracing the girl. "Though the foul sorcerer doth disguise you and lessen your feminine attributes, still the blue thunder recognizes the inner beauty of his true love!"

"What are you talking about?" The girl screamed, as she was hoisted up into his arms. "And what do you mean 'lessen my feminine attributes?'" Somehow, she thought she'd just been insulted.

"Surely you noticed, the sorcerer has decreased your breast size dramatically, and your posterior…" Kuno stopped as he had an elbow jabbed into his head.

"I get the point, now let me GO!" The girl shouted, at the top of her lungs.

"But pigtailed girl, surely you wish me to rescue you?" Kuno asked, confused. "Do not tell me that Saotome has brainwashed you further!"

"Ahem." Came another voice, from the entrance of the arcade that the girl had come out of. Kuno turned around to see a blonde haired boy in a uniform from the arcade, and a brown haired girl who he recognized.

"Tendo-san, did Saotome kidnap you as well?" He asked, looking confused.

"Kidnap?" Kasumi asked, looking at Kuno strangely.

"The sorcerer, he kidnapped the pigtailed girl, and now he must have taken you as well!" Kuno explained, seeming to have come to an inspired conclusion.

Kasumi began to see what Kuno was talking about, and frowned. When she was in Nerima, she had thought of Kuno as one of Akane and Ranma's friends, and let them deal with his odd behavior, not that she could really stop him from it, but he had just accosted an innocent girl who he didn't even know. "Kuno-san, Ranma-kun did not kidnap me or the pigtailed girl."

"But, then why are you here, and why is the pigtailed girl not embracing me as is her true desire?" Kuno asked, blinking at Kasumi like a fascinated cow.

"This is not the pigtailed girl, Kuno. She doesn't even look anything like her." Kasumi said, her frown now getting deeper. Now, other people could actually see it. "You just ran up and hugged a total stranger. That wasn't very appropriate."

"But Tendo-san, Saotome disguised the pigtailed girl so that I could not find her!" Kuno said, noticing the frown.

"I can assure you that I haven't seen Ranma-kun or the pigtailed girl in a long time." Kasumi retorted, then tilted her head to the side. "You don't think I would lie about that, do you?"

"N… No, of course not! I know that thou art the pinnacle of honesty and virtue, Tendo-san." Kuno said, assuredly. "If you say that this is not the pigtailed girl, then it must be true. I shall search for her elsewhere."

The Kendoist turned around to walk off, but was stopped by Kasumi's cleared throat. "I believe you have something to say to Unazuki-chan."

Kuno stopped, his back stiffened, and he turned. "I humbly apologize, Unazuki-san." He said, although it sounded like it was being dragged out of him with a horse and chain.

"It's all right, accidents happen." Unazuki said, more confused than she'd been in her entire life.

After Kuno stalked out of earshot, the girl and her brother both looked at Kasumi. Motoki was the first to speak up. "What just happened?" He asked, faintly.

"Oh, that was just Kuno-san. He shouldn't bother Unazuki-chan anymore." Kasumi said, turning to leave and enter the building. Unazuki followed to try and get a better explanation, while her brother shrugged and entered the arcade to begin cleaning it for the next week.

HR.

Ranma walked down the street, heading for the peeking Duck. He'd promised to pay Mousse back for his accidental shot at Haruka in a week, and it was now Sunday. He wasn't really going to beat him up, but a good spar would be nice, especially since he'd quit his job a few days ago in order to start school, and was bored out of his mind.

As the martial artist pushed open the door to the Peeking Duck, he saw that no one was in the main room. Proceeding to the room in the back, he stopped and blinked several times. After taking in the sight inside for a few seconds, only one thing came to mind, and deciding that it was better than gaping, he spoke. "What the?"

The thing that had caused this reaction in Ranma was that Cologne was standing in the middle of the room, Happosai sitting on the bed and looking at her wearily. The old woman was holding a pair of panties, and stepped towards the letch slowly. He flinched at every step. Mousse was sitting in a chair near the door, looking on in a combination of bemusement and amusement. When Ranma's comment broke the silence, the old man jumped into the air.

Cologne sighed. "Now we have to start again." She grumbled, annoyed.

HR.

A few minutes later, after another failed attempt at… whatever she was doing, Cologne exited the back room and sat down at a table in the restaurant. "So," Ranma said, as he slipped in on the other side. "Ya wanna tell me what you were doin in there?"

"You remember when we found Happi beaten up last week?" Cologne asked, sipping at a cup of herbal tea. At Ranma's nod, she continued. "Well, when he woke up he claimed that the last two times he tried to absorb women's life energy, a force has randomly struck him. Now he says that he won't touch another pair of panties again."

"But, isn't that a good thing?" Ranma asked, wondering what the problem with this was.

"It would be, except Happi relies on female life force to live. I've been supplementing his reserves for the last week, but it's been draining me and I won't be able to keep going for long." Cologne said. As the old woman spoke, Ranma noticed that she looked a bit run down.

"Hey, I've got an idea." Mousse said, from his post at the door to Happosai's room. "Let's get him to glomp Ranma."

Ranma immediately glared at the duck cursed man. "Keep your ideas to yourself, duck boy." He snapped, annoyed. Unfortunately, the damage had been done.

Cologne's eyes were widening in understanding. "He knows Ranma, and he's glomped him before. If he's going to touch any girl at the moment it would be one he knows..."

"Oh no, no way!" Ranma said, as he got up from his chair and began to back off.

"Ranma, I would not ask you this if it weren't necessary. We all hate Happi's perversions, but I don't think you want him to die." Cologne responded.

"Well I… Damn it." Ranma sighed, looking down. She was right. He didn't want the old letch to die. "But he'd better get offa me as soon as possible."

Cologne chuckled. "I'll be sure to smack him on the head with my staff if he doesn't."

HR.

About five minutes later, Ranma was getting frustrated. She had been sitting in front of Happosai for a minute now, giving him a free invitation to glomp her. It took all her control not to start pummeling him into the next decade, but she was doing it. "C'mon old freak, how hard is it to just grab. Ya do it often enough." She growled.

"Nu-uh." Happosai said, though there was sweat rolling off of his forehead.

"Look, I promised I wouldn't hurt ya, just do it." The pigtailed girl said, reaching up and unbuttoning one of the catches on the front of her shirt.

"You sure you won't do anything?" The old perv asked, the sweat coming faster. At Ranma's nod, his control broke. "SWEATO!!" He bellowed, leaping forward.

As the old man made contact with Ranma's chest and began to drain energy, a small blue-green pen that was stored in one of her pockets began to pulse with a soft light. By the time his aura made contact with hers, the light was more rapid, but still too faint to be seen from outside.

When the enemy aura started draining her own, it instituted what was supposed to be an automatic anti-drain field. This field was not nearly as powerful as the one a transformed Senshi had, and would fail within about thirty seconds, but it hadn't been designed for a human drainer. As a result, after finding that there wasn't a magical construct to neutralize, the magic of the barrier manifested into it's physical elemental form and Happosai was blasted into the far wall by a stream of salt water.

"You said… you wouldn't hurt me." Happosai complained, falling to the ground in an unconscious heap.

Ranma blinked several times and looked down at her chest. Her shirt wasn't even wet. "I kinda wish that happened in Nerima." She said, contemplatively.

Cologne, who was standing behind and watching the proceedings, just sighed. Happi wasn't exaggerating, it seemed. He must have pissed off a pretty powerful Kami to get retribution like that. "Thank you Ranma, I'll take care of Happi." She said, walking over to the slumped form.

"Yeah, sure." Ranma said, as she left the room. Seeing Mousse still standing where he had before in the Restaurant, a feral grin spread over her face. "Now, it's time ta kick yer ass for that brilliant suggestion."

Mousse gulped. "Yeah, all right, but could you do something first?" He asked, for some reason blushing.

"Yeah, what?"

"Could you please close your shirt?" Mousse continued, his blush getting worse.

The redhead looked down and eaped, fumbling with the ties of her shirt as she rapidly closed it.

HR.

Ranma looked up at the large black mass of the Infinity Academy, wondering what he was thinking when he signed up to go there. It was a forty or fifty story building, and looked more like an office complex than anything else.

"You nervous?" Haruka asked, from her place beside him. She wore the school's male school uniform, a white shirt and blue pants, while he wore his traditional clothing, thanks to a special allowance in the rules that Setsuna had arranged.

"I ain't nervous!" Ranma shot back, bringing a chuckle from Haruka.

"All right then, come on." Haruka said, as she headed for the front door. Ranma nodded and quickly followed.

As they entered the front hall of the building, the two noticed that there were many people rushing through, from children that looked as young as six or seven to old men wearing lab coats.

"What's with the kids?" Ranma asked, curiously.

"They apparently maintain a small primary and Junior high school complex for employees' children." Haruka explained, shrugging. "Didn't you read the information they sent?"

Ranma looked sheepish, and the blonde sighed in exasperation as she dragged him towards a wall lined with desks that vaguely resembled the one at a bank. When their turn came, Haruka quickly gave her name and was handed a set of papers and a school identification card.

Of course, when Ranma gave his name, there were problems. "Just Ranma?" The secretary asked, waiting for a last name.

"Just search the name, Eiko. There can't be too many Ranmas in the database." Came the voice of another secretary from the next booth. Eiko nodded and typed the name in.

"Ah, here we go. Ranma Meiou." She said, handing him a similar set of papers to that of Haruka, as well as two ID cards. "Remember to give the other card to your sister." She said, consulting the notes on his computer file.

"My sister?" Ranma asked, his mind still frozen over the last name in the records.

"Yes, it says here that she may need access to the campus to hand in work and take notes when you're sick." The secretary said, and smirked. "Nice girl, doing that for her brother."

"Yeah…" Ranma said, faintly, before walking away from the desk. He quickly checked the cards, and found that one had his information on it, the only strange item being the last name. The other card was a visitor's pass, for a "Ranko Meiou," and had his cursed form recorded as his sister, who was a year younger than he was. "Setsuna's startin to scare me." He muttered, handing Haruka the papers.

The blonde looked over the two IDs and whistled. "I didn't even think you could do that." She said, handing them back. "In fact, I'm pretty sure you can't."

"I'll have to ask her about it when we get home." Ranma responded, then looked down at his class schedule. "Looks like I've got Japanese in five minutes."

"Crap, I'm going to English. Well, I didn't think we'd share any classes." Haruka said, checking her own schedule. "I'll see you at lunch."

Ranma nodded, before the two parted ways.

HR.

Ranma checked his schedule again, double checking. Yes, it still said it. He apparently had Music as a fine arts credit at the end of every Monday. All of his other classes today had been alright, especially since the teachers hadn't actually taught anything during the first day, but he had his doubts about music. He'd had an interest in listening to good music as a kid, but Genma had forbidden it, saying it would make him weak. Normally this by itself would make him want to try out music class, but he thought that for once Genma could have been right. He couldn't think of anything to associate music with the martial arts, or anything else he was interested in.

Shrugging, he opened the door to the room and entered a cacophony of musicians of various levels, all warming up. He wanted to clamp his hands over his ears and run out, but the noise gradually thinned out as his ears adapted. The teacher of the class walked up to him, with a clipboard in her right hand. "Your name please?" She asked, raising her voice slightly above the noise.

"Ranma!" Ranma called back, doing the same.

She quickly checked her list and found his name, checking it off. "I see you don't have an instrument selected. If you have a preference, please go to the storage room and get one." She said, before walking off.

Ranma was at a loss for what to do until he noticed a set of double doors with a sign on them that said "Instrument storage." Thinking this was where he had to go, he quickly entered, and sighed in relief as he realized that the room was soundproof. Along the walls, there were various randomly sized cases that he assumed contained instruments. Not sure which one to grab, he tried a method that he hadn't used to make a decision since he was a kid. He closed his eyes and pointed randomly.

Following the finger, he found a case that was vaguely guitar shaped, but smaller. Opening it up, he found a violin, plus it's bow.

"If you're new and trying to pick an instrument, I wouldn't use that if I were you."

Ranma spun to face the voice that had surprised him, seeing a short, non-descript brown haired girl in the Academy's girl's uniform. "Huh, who are you?"

"I'm Midori. I was just coming in to get my trombone." The girl explained, picking up a case. "Anyways, the Violin is a hard instrument to learn. Novices shouldn't try it."

"Why not?" Ranma asked, his martial arts challenge senses tingling.

"Like I said, it's hard to play." The girl continued, shrugging.

"How about I try?" He asked, smirking, as he extracted the instrument and held it up, trying to push the bow along it.

The girl sighed in exasperation, walked over and took it from him. "You hold it like this." She said, putting the base of the instrument under her chin, and holding the bow as if to rub it over the strings.

"Thanks." Ranma said, when the girl handed the violin back, and copied her stance. Bringing the bow down, he pulled it across the strings and something seemed to well up from inside of his mind. He angled it carefully, and managed to produce one long, sustained and perfectly played note.

The girl's eyes widened. "Are you sure you haven't played one of those before?" She asked, surprised. At Ranma's shake of the head, she continued. "It takes a few tries at least to even get that far with one of those." She said. "Maybe you should keep practicing with that."

Ranma shrugged, carrying the violin out of the instrument storage room and into the maelstrom.

HR.

On the way home from school, Haruka kept shooting curious glances over at Ranma. The main reason for this was the fact that he appeared to have a violin case tied to his pack. "Hey Ranma, I didn't think you were a music lover. Why the violin?" She asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Apparently if ya pay for the music course, ya can take pretty well anything but a drum set or piano to use." Ranma explained.

Haruka sighed. "But a violin?"

Ranma shrugged. "It seemed natural."

Haruka just left it at that. Ranma was just strange sometimes. Realizing what she'd just thought, she wondered if she could possibly make a larger understatement.

HR.

In the study of an opulent English style house, a large brown haired man sat reading a newspaper. The telephone next to his chair rang, and he immediately answered it. "Hello?" He listened for a few seconds, and then began to look excited. "You found her, where? How did she get there?" He sighed. Sometimes, his daughter even surprised him. "I understand. Thank you." He said, before hanging up the phone.

Hiroki Tenoh got up from his plush office chair, and went to find his wife. They had found their daughter.

END.

Notes: You may have noticed a plot hole between Happi's encounters with Senshi draining. No, he didn't get hit with an anti-draining spell from Usagi's panties, he only got hit with her residual energy. Considering Usagi's the most powerful of the Senshi, (With her crystal,) if he'd hit her anti-draining spell it woulda vaporized him. Not nice.

Also, if I've flubbed anything about the violin, I'm sorry. I played as a member of a school band for years, but I was in the brass section (and played badly.) I'm going off the comments the violinists made.

Anyways, hope you like the story, and remember to review! THE POWER OF KASUMI COMPELS YOU!


	19. Chapter 19, Parental and marriage obliga

Wow, a warning for my fellow authors. Never invoke the power of Kasumi unless you mean it, and REALLY need the feedback. It works, quite well, but it is a dangerous thing to use. I shall never abuse it again.

Now, on with the show.

Chapter 19, Parental and marriage obligations of the third kind.

Ranma and Haruka walked into Setsuna's house, noticing that the other two residents' shoes were sitting neatly by the entrance. "We're home!" Ranma called, and heard Nodoka's distant return of "Welcome home!" From the kitchen. Haruka, who had actually been in a physical education class today and was, for once, more hungry than Ranma, immediately headed for the voice, while the pigtailed martial artist headed for the living room.

Setsuna was there, reclining on the couch and using a remote control to flick through television channels. When Ranma looked to see what she was looking through, he saw a collection of local news stations and stock reports. "Looks exciting." He commented, sarcastically, as he sat in the chair that the older woman had occupied when she had first met them in this house.

"It is." Setsuna said, glancing over at Ranma. As her eyes settled on the item he had slung over his backpack, the eyebrows rose. "A violin?" She asked, though she didn't sound quite the same as Haruka had when she asked the question.

"Aw, c'mon. I had to pick somethin for music class." Ranma complained, misreading Setsuna's expression as derogatory.

"Oh not at all, I like the violin." Setsuna said, smiling. This, once again, was a new type of smile. It wasn't the one she got when she was keeping some sort of secret, reminiscent of a more experienced Nabiki, or the one that she had when she was being amused by something. This one was nostalgic, as if she was remembering something from a long time ago. "Could you play it for me?" She asked, suddenly.

Ranma was surprised, and began fidgeting. "Erm, well I'm not very good at it yet." He explained. This wasn't a martial art, after all, so admission of lack of skill wasn't quite as bad. Seeing Setsuna's encouraging nod, he sighed and un-slung the case, opening it and extracting the instrument inside. He quickly checked the bow as he had been taught by the instructor in class, and seeing that it was still ready for use, lifted the violin into position under his chin.

He'd picked up the positions to make the notes relatively quickly. They had a lot to do with martial arts stances, each one a different position for a different purpose. He hadn't been able to get the tempo of any music yet, and sheet music was a horrendously complicated blob so far, but he could play a scale, at least.

Setsuna listened in silence, as Ranma started playing the scale. His reflex control made his hands rock steady, and all of the notes came out clearly, but the transition was a bit flawed. Even still, she leaned back and listened. Given the memories from his past life which were evidently subconsciously filtering through, and Ranma's own learning curve, he would probably be able to get close to the level Neptune had had in the silver millennium within a few months.

Even if Ranma hadn't been the original recipient of Neptune's star seed, and his character overrode much of Neptune's traits, Setsuna could still see her old teammate in him. Of course, Even less of princess Serenity was really visible in Usagi most of the time, and she was the RIGHT receiver for the seed, so she supposed things balanced out.

HR.

Down the hall, Haruka was standing, looking confused, next to Nodoka. The older woman had her eyes closed, and there were tears coming from them. Yes, Ranma was doing pretty good for the first day playing an instrument, but he was just playing a scale. It wasn't like it was some grand symphonic piece. "Are you all right, Nodoka-san?" She asked, nervously reaching out and shaking the auburn haired woman's shoulder.

"What have we done?" Nodoka murmured, not seeming to have heard Haruka's question. The cross-dressing blonde couldn't know, of course, that Nodoka's mind was locked in a single train of thought. She had thought that Ranma's main and only real talent was the art, until she'd come here. She'd seen that he was perfectly capable of surviving by himself, and that he even had a hidden talent for music. She kept wondering what would have happened if she hadn't given him up when he was young. Damn Genma for taking him on that training trip, and damn her for letting him. After a couple of seconds, she realized that the rising and falling scales had stopped, and someone was standing in front of her.

"Aunt Nodoka, are you all right?" Ranma asked, looking at the one he couldn't call mother with concern.

"Ranma, I… I…" Nodoka stuttered, feeling the tears that had gathered at the edge of her eyes. Abruptly, her control snapped and she was hugging her former son tightly, crying into his shoulder and mumbling "I'm sorry," over and over again.

"We should leave them alone." Came a voice, belonging to Setsuna, from just behind Haruka's left shoulder. The blonde jumped about three feet in the air, but after glaring at the green haired woman she allowed herself to be led out of the room.

"What was that about?" She asked, looking at Setsuna curiously.

The green haired woman shook her head slowly. "Let's just go upstairs for a while." She said, before walking off. Haruka looked back and forth between the two ends of the hallway, then chose the one with the staircase. Whatever was going on with Ranma and Nodoka, Setsuna evidently thought it was private, and Haruka had intruded on one private moment already recently.

HR.

The next morning, Haruka woke to the feeling of an empty bed. This wasn't an unusual feeling, but for the past two mornings she'd been noticing it quite a bit. Even if they were slightly embarrassing, she missed waking up in Ranma's arms, or preferably, the other way around, for the few days when their rooms had been unusable. Sunday had been fun, for sure.

Getting out of bed, she began to dress while thinking about what had happened the night before. She wasn't entirely sure why Ranma's violin practice had set Nodoka off like that, but she wasn't going to ask. Sometimes, she wished that her mother would care as much about her as his aunt seemed to about him. Then again, the thought of trading her father for Ranma's father, an idiot named Genma, made her shudder. Her father was about the only family member she missed, though sometimes she was glad he wasn't here.

Despite the number of girls he'd seen her date, the mere hint of evidence of a guy going after her turned him into a madman with a will to scare the poor guy half to death. One of her mechanics who had made a random comment about her being cute had been scared by the man so much that he had never come back. Of course, the irony in that was that the poor mechanic was gay.

Chuckling at the memory, Haruka slipped the school uniform shirt over her bound upper torso, quickly brushing her fingers through her hair. She'd worry about actually getting ready later. Leaving the room, she headed down to the smell of breakfast.

HR.

As Haruka entered the kitchen, she blinked. Ranma was standing at the stove, in female form, and stirring a pot of rice. "Feeling domestic today?" She asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Aunty Nodoka's asleep and I didn't wanna wake her up." Ranma responded, looking away from the food for a moment. "The Miso's already done, you wanna get it?"

Haruka nodded, retrieving the pot of soup and pouring it into the bowls that were already set out on the table. Looking back at the redhead who was standing at the stove, she felt her mouth quirk into a smile. "You'd make a good wife, Ranma-chan." She said, grinning widely.

Ranma twitched violently and sent a glare at the blonde. "What was that?" She demanded, annoyed.

"Nothing, nothing." Haruka said, holding up her hands in pacification.

A few seconds later, Setsuna entered the room, her hair mussed and her eyes still half full of sleep. It was amazing how much she differed from her usual manner when she first woke up. "Feeling a bit domestic, Ranma?" She asked, inadvertently copying Haruka.

"Y'know, I could let this burn." Ranma drawled, glaring at Setsuna. The older woman just laughed as she sat at the table and opened up a paper that she'd brought in with her.

"Where's Nodoka-san?" The dark green haired woman asked, peeking out from the side of the paper.

"She's sleeping." Ranma repeated, sighing. "I don't think she'll be up any time soon."

Setsuna nodded solemnly, as Ranma decided that the rice was done, and set the pot full on a plate in the middle of the table. "You know we've got a rice cooker." She said, offhand, causing Ranma to twitch slightly.

HR.

Mr. Tenoh looked from the side window of a large black car, noticing the state of the neighborhood around him. Although there were occasional craters or damaged walls, the place seemed to be mostly well maintained. This began to make him wonder precisely what had made all of those craters, and hope that Haruka had kept clear of it. "How long until we arrive?" He asked, addressing the driver in the front seat of the car.

"We are turning onto the street now, sir." The man said, as the car made a 90 degree turn.

"Why in the world did the girl run here?" Mr. Tenoh's wife, a tall, blonde woman, asked in irritation.

"Well, you've got to admit we would never think of looking here." He commented, as a small two story house drifted into view that had a number on the front matching the one he had gotten from his informant the day before. His informant had actually been a friend of his, a member of the board of directors that Dr. Tomoe had assembled to subsidize his Infinity academy project. He had asked that any mention of a Haruka Tenoh in the school's records be reported to him, and when she had registered for classes the day before, such a record was entered.

After the car pulled up in front of the house, Mr. Tenoh stepped out and helped his wife out. They walked to the door and, after a few moments, a green haired woman in a grey women's business suit opened it. "Tenoh-san." The woman said, nodding as if she'd expected him this whole time.

Haruka's father's eyebrow rose in slight surprise. He had heard that Haruka was living with the owner of Meiou industries, but he had dismissed this as exaggeration. "Meiou-san." He said, nodding. "May we come in?"

Setsuna nodded, clearing the entrance for her two visitors.

HR.

Haruka entered the house, allowing her book bag to rest near the front entrance as she kicked off her shoes and slipped on her house slippers. Ranma had stayed behind, his math teacher having wanted to talk to him about a standard assessment he'd taken during class today, so she'd walked home alone.

Hearing talking from the living room, she poked her head in to see who was there, only to stop in shock at what she saw. There, casually having tea with Setsuna, were her father and mother. She considered bolting, but she didn't have anywhere to bolt to, and if she did she'd end up leaving Ranma. Besides, now that she had her own place to stay and her own career to fall back on if she had to, she could just tell them to get lost if she had to. Of course, she didn't WANT to do that. Hopefully, they would have given up on their idea to marry her off to some random guy. She really wished she hadn't forgotten the guy's name.

It seemed that Haruka had spent too much time with her head stuck through the doorway, as her father had seen it. "Haruka-chan!" He said, happily.

The blonde blushed as she entered the room. Well, at least that was a good sign. He wasn't angry at her, or at least, he was more relieved to see her than angry. "Erm, Hi dad." She said, lamely.

"Haruka, are you going to come and join us?" Setsuna asked, gesturing to a chair and sending her a meaningful look. Haruka sighed and plopped down in the chair, accepting a cup of tea.

"Setsuna-san has been telling us of what you've done since you came here." Haruka's father said, calmly. "It seems you're doing pretty well."

Haruka blinked. This wasn't what she was expecting when her parents tracked her down. "Yeah, I guess I'm doing pretty well." She said, uncertainly.

"And, now that you've proven how well you can cope with the world, We think it's time that you come home." Her mother, who had been silent in a corner for most of the conversation, spoke up abruptly.

Mr. Tenoh winced. He'd wanted to be a bit more subtle about it, but words couldn't be unsaid. As he saw Haruka stiffen, he decided to speak up himself. "Haruka, I know you left because of the marriage arrangement, but please allow me to explain it."

"What's to explain?" Haruka asked, having abruptly stiffened up. "You plan on marrying me to a guy I don't know because his father agreed to trade him for a full course dinner ten years ago. That's about how I read it."

Mr. Tenoh winced. "Yes, that's about how I thought you'd read it, but the situation is more complex than that." He sighed. "We have to at least try to get you married to the boy, but the marriage doesn't have to succeed. If the boy's family agrees to call it off, we can, but we are required by honor to try."

Haruka blinked. They hadn't told her this before. "And why didn't you just tell me this rather than insisting that we go through with it?" She asked, giving voice to her question.

Her mother answered. "Because if we did, we could be accused of trying to ensure the marriage's failure ahead of time and lose much honor."

Haruka frowned. This made some sense. Her family, more particularly her father, was highly placed in the Japanese business community, and if they purposely sabotaged any agreement, even a marriage agreement for their own child, they would be looked down on. "One thing I don't get though," she said after a few seconds of consideration. "Why the heck did you let a person engage their son to your daughter for a full course meal, anyways?"

Mr. Tenoh frowned. "Well, I met the man when he was traveling through Japan on a martial arts training trip with his son. The boy was practicing in a nearby vacant lot, and after the man offered his son's hand to my daughter for some food, claiming that he was starving, I talked to the boy. He was rough around the edges, but more honest than his father, and quite a strong martial artist." He looked sheepish. "At the time I didn't know how you would be when you were older, and I thought catching such a good prospective husband for you would be doing you a favor."

From behind Haruka, Nodoka, who had just entered from another portion of the house, spoke up. "That sounds much like something Genma would do." She muttered.

Haruka turned around to see her, and noticed that she was looking a lot better than she had the night before when she'd been crying. Then, what Nodoka had said finally sunk in. That did sound a lot like the stories Ranma had told about his father's multiple engagement plans. It was at that point that several things snapped into place in her mind, and she asked a question. "I don't suppose the boy's name was Ranma, was it?"

Haruka's father looked surprised. "How did you know?" He asked.

Haruka slapped her hand to her forehead, just as she heard the front door of the house open.

HR.

Ranma headed home, feeling more than a little annoyed. He'd been called back to talk to a teacher after class had ended, and as he'd feared, it was so that he could do more school work. Apparently, he'd scored a bit too low on the math evaluation. The teacher had explained that Infinity Academy was a school that had a higher grading standard than most other high school or college campuses, and while his score would have been just barely sufficient in a normal school, he was afraid that he'd have to do better.

What this all came down to was that Ranma now had to go to a Juku course to improve his math skills at least once a week. His annoyance over this, plus the fact that there wasn't another person walking with him, had made Ranma prefer the roof tops for his trip home, and he was already at the front door when he finished grumbling and cooled off. Opening the front door, he called out the usual greeting. Strangely, the response wasn't usual.

"Ranma, please come to the living room!" Setsuna called. He dropped his pack next to Haruka's, making sure the instrument case didn't bang into anything, and made his way to the living room only to see Setsuna, Haruka and Nodoka, along with two other people who looked a bit older than Nodoka. "Hello Ranma," Setsuna said, smiling. "These are the newest victims of Genma Saotome's fiancée scheme." She then gestured at the two older people who were sitting on the couch, looking thoroughly confused.

"Wait, ya mean Genma engaged me to their kid too?" Ranma asked, thinking that the day had just gotten worse. Setsuna nodded.

At this point, the man, who Ranma assumed was the fiancée's father, spoke up. "Excuse me, but am I correct in assuming that you're Ranma Saotome?"

Ranma frowned. "Well, not really. I left the Saotome family about a month ago. Sorry for the ol' bastard causin ya trouble, but I ain't gunna marry your daughter."

"R… really?" Haruka asked, from behind him.

Ranma turned around, and saw Haruka looking down. "Well, yeah." He said, confused. Haruka looked down even further, so he looked at Setsuna for help.

The green haired woman shook her head, and then spoke. "These are Mr. and Mrs. Tenoh."

"Oh… shit." Ranma said, as what he'd just said dawned on him. "What'd I just say?" He'd done it again. He'd stuck his foot in his mouth, and swallowed down to the knee. He looked around frantically, but everyone was just staring at him. "I… that is…" He stuttered, not sure how he'd gotten into this. "Haruka, I…" She didn't look up. "I didn't mean that. I, I wanna marry you, really!" He said, and then stopped dead, even in his breathing.

Haruka's face whipped up, with a look of supreme shock on it. She hadn't really been upset with Ranma when he'd said he wasn't going to marry her. He hadn't even known it was her at the time, and besides, they hadn't known each other for very long.

"Did you mean that, son?" Haruka's father asked, looking at Ranma intently.

Ranma's first instinct was to deny that he had said anything, like he had always done when he slipped and showed affection to Akane. Fortunately, his better judgment prevailed when he realized that his denials of his feelings for Akane had been a contributing factor to their problems, and he spoke the truth. "Yeah… Yeah, I think I did." He said, looking just as shocked as Haruka, as he slumped down to the floor. "I really think I did."

END.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Oh my god! Okay folks, how do you like THAT! The crap took a drastically different direction to the fan, didn't it?


	20. Chapter 20, Contemplation on an engageme

Hmm, while this one's about the size of my normal fic chapters, it's kinda small for a Contrast Match one. I'm sorry for that, but the tone of this chapter was such that I couldn't really add any scenes to it external to Ranma and Haruka, and it pretty well HAD to end where it did. I hope you enjoy it, anyways.

Chapter 20, Contemplation on an engagement.

The living room of the Meiou house was silent after Ranma's final statement, each of it's occupants running through their own individual thought processes. Setsuna, while outwardly calm, was inwardly half way between blind panic and maniacal laughter. She'd known that Ranma would introduce a wave of chaos in the timeline, and that it would eventually drift almost completely from it's preset path, but this was ridiculous. Admittedly, she had thought that given their natural attraction from their past lives, the two would probably eventually marry, but the impact of it occurring even before they became Senshi could be a problem.

She quickly ran through several different ways to mitigate the damage that this would do to her plans, before catching herself. Who was she to interfere with this? She had very little more warning than anyone else if the situation was to go bad, and by the same token she had no way of knowing that it wouldn't make a better future than the original course. She picked up her tea cup, her hand trembling only slightly, and resolved that she would let events play themselves out and only interfere if and when it seemed appropriate.

Nodoka, from her position standing behind the Senshi of time, was smiling brightly. The night before, she had heard Ranma reveal a talent she'd never known he'd had, and abruptly it had crashed down upon her. The thought that she knew almost nothing about her own son, and hadn't been a big part of his life since he'd left on the training trip. Ranma had been quick to comfort her, but even though the momentary swell of grief had passed, the actual problem hadn't. Now, however, she was seeing a major part of Ranma's life. He'd just proposed to a girl, in his own clumsy fashion, and she had been there to witness it. Maybe she'd even be there to attend the wedding, or even better, help plan it. The former Saotome woman drifted off into the traditional pass-time of the mothers of engaged people.

Haruka's father wasn't entirely sure what was going on. He had come to find his daughter and get her to agree to at least meet the boy she was engaged to, only to find out that she apparently already knew him, and he liked her enough to propose to her. At least, that was what it had sounded like, though the boy seemed remarkably indecisive to him.

He would normally feel obliged to play the overprotective father at this moment, but he had technically already given this boy leave to pursue his daughter. "Could he at least stop gaping like that?" He whispered, not loudly enough for anyone in the room to hear other than his wife.

Mrs. Tenoh frowned at her husband's comment. It was true that the boy had a rather strangely shocked expression on his face, but she was willing to let a lot of things pass given the fact that a boy had just proposed to her little girl, and she wasn't objecting violently.

Mrs. Tenoh, perhaps more than her husband, always had to act as a proper member of a rich and powerful family. Truthfully, she hadn't had all that much of a problem with her daughter's choice of companions, however she had had to show the expected disapproval, and couldn't have let the girl actually spend her life with one of the women she'd met, as that would have been an embarrassment to the family.

When Haruka had run away after the attempt at an engagement, she'd cried into her husband's chest at night, thinking that her actions had driven their daughter away, but she'd still had to act cool and calm in public.

Now that her daughter had, apparently, found a man that she could love, perhaps things between them could get better again. This thought was abruptly interrupted, as she saw that the boy was starting to fidget because of the continuing silence in the room. Getting up from her chair, she walked quietly over to Haruka and whispered in her ear. "Dear, I suggest you say or do something before the boy thinks you're rejecting him."

HR.

Ranma looked at Haruka from his position kneeling on the floor, unsure of her reaction to his clumsy attempt at a proposal. He hadn't really meant to do it. He'd just seen Haruka looking hurt and sad, and said the first thing that had come to mind, but after the words were out of his mouth he realized that they were, if not true, extremely close to it.

He'd started out regarding Haruka as alternately a nuisance and a student, but things had progressed rapidly after the two found out about each other's secrets. She'd even had him, or rather his cursed form, on a date within a day of the revelation that she was a girl.

What was it with him and falling head over heals for the girls he liked so quickly? He'd been hit in the back of the head by Akane on the first day he'd known her, even if he now privately admitted it was half his fault for the comment about his cursed form's chest, and he had still fallen for her within a few days. then he'd fallen for Haruka before he'd even known she was female.

As he lifted his head to see what Haruka was doing, he saw her shake her head slightly. Was that an indication that she was going to say no? A part of him was relieved at that thought, but a much larger one seemed to sink into the pit of his stomach. As their eyes locked, Haruka acted.

HR.

Haruka sat there, gaping at Ranma. She reviewed the past few seconds in her mind, not believing what had happened. She had expected his denial of his engagement to her, especially since he hadn't known it was her he was talking about, and had wanted to tease him a little, so she'd acted sad about it. Well, now she knew the results of doing THAT. He'd panicked, and then said that he'd marry her. She'd been surprised, even then, but then her father's question had come and rather than retract his previous statement, Ranma had confirmed it.

Ranma wanted to marry her. Well, maybe that was a little much. At the very least, he loved her enough to say that he wanted to marry her, and mean it at least a bit. The question that immediately sprung up in her mind was 'How do I feel about this?'

Her primary emotion at the moment was obviously astonishment, but behind it she had a strong desire to run around giggling her head off. She suppressed this immediately, but she still felt really good. "Ranma, quite obviously, really liked her and, despite his normal gender she was pretty sure she liked him too. Heck, his being a guy was actually an asset, since that meant that they actually COULD get married, something that wouldn't have been possible with another girl. Of course, that rationalization didn't matter. Ranma had done a good job of catching her, in either of his forms, even if mostly unintentionally. Somehow, she didn't want to break free.

She shook her head slightly, and noticed a flinch coming from the form of Ranma, who was still kneeling in front of her. When she looked into his eyes, she saw that most of his emotions were laid bare, and that at this moment she could probably completely destroy him if she said or did the wrong thing. To make the pressure worse, her mother had just whispered something in her ear. "Dear, I suggest you say or do something before the boy thinks you're rejecting him."

What was she supposed to do now? After about ten seconds of trying to think up the correct words to say to Ranma, the blonde tomboy gave up and leaned forward, lifting the pigtailed martial artist's head to meet her eyes. He looked confused for about a second, before her lips met his.

About fifteen seconds later, Ranma and Haruka pulled apart.

"Well, I suppose that answers the question of whether she wants to marry him." Setsuna drawled, before she could stop herself.

"So, when will the date of the wedding be?" Nodoka asked, excitedly.

Mrs. Tenoh turned to her and was about to start talking, until Ranma's sharp voice cut in. "It ain't gunna be soon." He said, drawing most of the room's attention to him, including Haruka's

"Are you going back on your proposal to my daughter?" Mr. Tenoh asked, beginning to sound angry.

Ranma refrained from mentioning that he technically hadn't proposed to Haruka, but continued on doggedly. "No, that ain't what I meant." He sighed. "I really wish I hadn't said that." Now, the attention from the room had turned half way hostile. Setsuna was still neutral, but Nodoka was disappointed, the Tenohs, especially Mr. Tenoh, were glaring and Haruka averted her eyes again.

"Argh…" Ranma growled, shaking his head. "That ain't what I meant. I meant what I said 'ta Haruka, all right? I just didn't really wanna say it right now."

The collective mood in the room after this statement was confusion. "Perhaps you should explain that, Ranma." Setsuna said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well," Ranma said, nervously. "First off, I ain't marryin Haruka 'cuz of the old bastard's promise. I mean, the old man made five arrangements that I know about, and the Kami know how many others that I don't. I said I'd marry her 'cuz I…" he looked down in embarrassment. "I… Like Haruka." He finally stammered.

"So why do you wish you hadn't said that now." Haruka's father asked, seeing that the pigtailed boy had seemingly stalled.

"'Cuz I think it's way to early ta start plannin for a wedding." Ranma responded, bluntly. "I ain't gunna let ya push Haruka into marrying me. I proposed to her myself, so we should be able ta set the date."

Haruka's mother and Nodoka both looked like they were going to say something, however Mr. Tenoh raised a palm to stop them, nodding in respect. "The boy has a point." He said, and when his wife shot a questioning look at him, he explained. "If what he says is true, then the engagement between our family and the Saotome clan is nullified by Genma Saotome's actions, and Ranma and Haruka chose to get engaged on their own. Haruka, you were trying to accept the engagement when you…" He trailed off, looking at his daughter questioningly.

Haruka looked hesitant for a moment, but finally nodded shortly.

"Ah, then it's settled. Ranma, can I have a word with you?" Haruka's father asked, as he stood from the couch and laid a hand on Ranma's shoulder. The pigtailed boy could easily have broken the older man's hold, but allowed himself to be lead out of the room.

Still sitting in her chair, Haruka worried about what her father wanted to talk to Ranma about. She doubted that he was going to try and scare the boy off, especially after his show of support for him, and even if he did try, she doubted that it would work on Ranma. Her musings were interrupted, as a shadow fell over her. "Erm, Mother?" She asked, nervously, looking up at the older woman. She was surprised when she quickly found her mother's arms wrapped around her and the woman hugging her tightly.

HR.

Ranma stood in the kitchen across from Mr. Tenoh, who was studying him intently. After a few seconds of this, the older man spoke. "Ranma-kun, I wanted to talk to you away from my wife and daughter for a few moments." He saw Ranma's confused look, and clarified. "My wife tends to be… a bit overly-concerned with appearance, and some of the things I may find out could cause her to worry. As for Haruka, I believe her mother would like to be with her for a while."

"Wadda ya wanna talk about, Tenoh-san?" Ranma asked, a bit confused but seeing the man's point. According to the bit Haruka had told him about her mother, she reminded him eerily of his own, before he left the Saotome family.

"Well, to begin with, I'd like to know why you left Genma, and precisely how you did it." Mr. Tenoh said, bluntly.

"I left the old man 'cuz He'd engaged me ta too many girls, and I couldn't get out of the mess without causin a lot of dishonor and pain ta all of 'em." He looked uncomfortable before continuing, reluctantly. "I got away from him by becoming a Ronin."

Mr. Tenoh nodded slightly. "Well, if what you say is the truth then I cannot really blame you for leaving your clan." Noticing Ranma's annoyance about having his word questioned, he continued. "Your being a Ronin is actually not as severe a problem as it would normally be, at least not to me."

"Huh?" Ranma asked, articulately.

"Haruka is my and Kiriko's only child, and for medical reasons we can't have another." The man explained, sadly. "We had always intended to try and find Haruka a husband who would be willing to accept adoption into our clan rather than the usual method of the woman being added to the man's. Obviously, given your lack of a family name, you would be ideal for that, and as I said, if your story about Genma is true, and I will check it, then you are much more concerned with honor than many people with clans are today."

Ranma blinked. While the man's questioning of his word annoyed him, he found it refreshing that a non-gaijin aside from Haruka, Nodoka or Setsuna knew he was a Ronin and didn't look down on him for it.

"Now," Mr. Tenoh said, clapping the pigtailed boy on the shoulder, "How about you tell me how you caught Haruka-chan's interest."

Ranma looked uncertain for a moment, then seemed to decide something. "That'll take a bit of explanation, and I should probably tell ya about somethin first." He said, before walking over to the kitchen counter and turning the cold water tap. Mr. Tenoh looked at him curiously, before he put his hand under the tap and switched to female form.

HR.

About five minutes later, Ranma walked back into the living room, once again male, and with a wide eyed Mr. Tenoh following.

"Well, have you finished inspecting Ranma-san?" Mrs. Tenoh asked, annoyed.

Her husband seemed to be distracted, as it took him a few seconds to answer. "Oh, Yes." He said, distantly. He had known that this area of Tokyo was a bit strange, but he hadn't expected it to be brought home quite so clearly and evidently as it had with Ranma's curse. Looking at his wife, he decided that he wasn't going to tell her about that little quirk of her daughter's new fiancé for a while. Looking at his watch, he blinked. It was getting pretty late. "Kiriko, we should probably get home before it gets much later." He commented.

The aforementioned woman frowned, seeming to want to spend more time with the daughter that she'd just found again, but nodded in agreement when she checked a clock on the wall. The two promised that they would visit again within the next week, before Nodoka walked them to the door. To Ranma's dismay, he could still hear Nodoka and Mrs. Tenoh discussing ideas for wedding decorations.

HR.

Later that night, after the four occupants of the house had finished dinner and Nodoka had gone to bed, Ranma stood looking at Haruka in the front hall, looking uneasy. "I guess things have changed, huh?" He mumbled, now that the two were alone to talk.

"Yeah, I guess so." Haruka responded, uncertainly. "I mean, we're actually engaged now, and everything."

"If you want to…" Ranma started, unable to finish his sentence.

"Didn't I make myself clear when you asked?" Haruka responded, smiling a little nervously. "But that doesn't mean we have to get hitched right away, right?"

Ranma nodded quickly. "Yeah. I mean, my last wedding attempt involved high explosive pork buns. I'd rather hold off for a while."

Haruka laughed. "Well I definitely don't want to end up in that frilly white dress!" She said, and then seemed to get an idea. "Hey, how about we switch! I bet Ranko would look really cute in a wedding dress."

"Hey, that'd better be a joke." Ranma said, looking at Haruka dangerously. The blonde just laughed as she ran up the stairs. Ranma stood at the bottom, looking at her. He may have regretted when he'd said it, but he quietly decided that he didn't regret what he'd said.

END.

Well, how was it? I hope you liked it, despite it being about 400 words shorter than usual.

Oh, I have a request. If there's a reviewer or reader who's good with anime art, would you be willing to draw a few pics for this fic? I can't pay you for them, so it'd be a fanart contribution. If you're interrested, PM me. To all the other readers, sorry about this note.


	21. Chapter 21, The rogue doctor and the fir

Chapter 21, The rogue doctor and the firefly.

Mr. Tenoh sat in his office, looking over a bunch of official looking documents. Several were police reports, one was the Saotome clan roll and another was a summary he had had made up detailing what he could learn of the life of one Ranma Meiou. That last had been quite a surprise. Apparently, the boy had managed to get himself adopted into the Meiou clan without knowing it, as he thought he was still a Ronin.

The man frowned. He really didn't know what Setsuna was playing at, adopting the boy, but it was yet another indication in his favor. Legend in the business world had it that her predecessors had managed to predict almost every disaster or breakthrough, and even their most unpredictable and seemingly random actions eventually revealed themselves to have a legitimate and quite ingenious reason.

Even without this somewhat nebulous endorsement of the boy, Mr. Tenoh was inclined to like him. He had the tact of a rock, but was honest and honorable. Perhaps most importantly, he seemed to make Haruka happy. The man had to blush at that thought. Given what the boy's other form looked like, his daughter was probably very happy indeed.

Even so, He had wished to check into the boy's story, and that had been one of the reasons he'd left the Meiou home so quickly. The other was that his wife was getting a look in her eye that made him think she was getting ideas. Judging from the fact that she'd been talking to Nodoka-san, who he had learned was Ranma's mother, he had decided that he should get her out of there quickly.

Sighing as he decided to get back to work, the brown haired man riffled through the police reports. A lot of them had the name Genma Saotome written in them, and a few had Ranma's own name. Some of the crimes were obviously committed by the boy, mostly minor food thefts, but those seemed to taper off as he'd gotten older. Some of the ones that were written under his name quite obviously couldn't have been caused by him, especially since one had involved running up a 30,000 Y bar tab, when the boy had only been five years old.

What was worse, the boy apparently had over twelve engagements that he could find, all of which were arranged by Genma. Several of them were to people Mr. Tenoh knew, and therefore could probably be negated. He would have to do research on the others. Precisely why was he doing this? Admittedly, he would have been a lot happier if Haruka had never found interest in anyone, and had kept to her racing. It was much safer, in his opinion.

Then again, she liked Ranma, and the boy was, quite frankly, better than the alternatives. His wife had tried a few times to search for a husband for their daughter, and one of those boys still gave him nightmares. True, he was from a noble and old house, but he, and his father and sister, were all a bunch of lunatics. Apparently his mother had had a nervous breakdown and run to china after four years of marriage, and he really couldn't blame the poor woman.

He shuddered. Yes, far better Ranma than that. His decision re-affirmed, he reached for a phone and began dialing. After it stopped ringing and someone picked up, he spoke. "Hello, Kuonji-san?"

HR.

Ranma walked along the street next to Haruka, in a thoughtful silence. It'd been over a day since his inadvertent proposal to Haruka, and though things were definitely different, he hadn't ended up being driven back into the Fiancee rat race his life had been in Nerima. He knew that there was little chance of that, but the fear was there. He'd never have thought that he would have submitted to an engagement willingly, but he had, and the world hadn't ended. In fact, he and Haruka had gone out for dinner yesterday with the last of his pay from the metro center.

He frowned at that. His basic needs were taken care of by living at Setsuna's, even though he felt a little like he was freeloading back at the Tendos, but he didn't have much extra cash. Heck, he hadn't even given Haruka a ring. Well, perhaps that was more of a good thing. After all, she couldn't really wear the engagement ring while dressed as a guy without getting some odd looks, and Ranma sucked at picking out jewelry anyways.

No, that wasn't what was bothering him. What was bothering him was the fact that strange things had started happening again, even if the last one hadn't been bad. Was his life going to start getting as strange as it had been in Nerima? Truthfully, for him, the weirdness of Nerima had been fun. The only problem had been the multiple engagements, and the fact that he'd been hurting people just by being there.

He was a martial artist, and needed challenges to survive. He'd figured that he could go on a training trip when he became restless, find a dojo where the master was good enough to fight against, or even have the occasional spar with Mousse, but it seemed that the chaotic nature of his life would not be denied, and a week ago it had almost gotten Haruka killed. He didn't know why these thoughts had come to him now, though. Maybe it was because the proposal two days before had made him think of his and Haruka's relationship again.

"You're pretty quiet today." Haruka observed suddenly, trying to break the silence. "Are you all right?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine." Ranma said, shaking his head to dismiss his thoughts.

Haruka sighed, as Ranma lapsed back into his former silent state after this statement. She knew there was something wrong, and wondered why he was brooding about it now. Nothing had happened yesterday to cause such a reaction, and she sincerely hoped that it wasn't the events of the day before that disturbed him so much. She doubted that Ranma would tell her what was wrong if she asked him again, so about all she could do was try and distract him and cheer him up. Thinking of how to do that, she got an idea.

Ranma looked up, startled, as Haruka broke into a slow jog, gradually building up to a run. "Hey, what're ya doin?" He asked, as he matched her pace.

"Outrunning you." She retorted, casually, as she abruptly sped up.

"No ya ain't!" He shot back, getting into the competition. Unlike in her fighting, Haruka actually was on par with Ranma when it came to sprinting speed. Running seemed to be one of her talents, and she had an almost scary ability to skirt obstacles tightly in order to cut corners. His worries about the chaos of his former life began to fade as he enjoyed the exhilaration of trying to chase down Haruka, and they were almost completely gone by the time he got to the school.

HR.

Later that day, Ranma sat in a classroom staring at a chalkboard. Since this was not Furinkan, and he wasn't particularly tired, he did his best not to fall asleep. He'd been told that this was a basic wood shop class, though they had spent most of this class in a classroom next to the shop.

Since all the school's shops were near the ground level, where the younger children were usually placed, the room he was in was actually a borrowed Junior high homeroom, with brightly colored posters on the walls.

Casually, he glanced out one of the windows that showed the corridor outside, shuddering at a picture of a cat that was taped there. What little kids saw in those monsters he didn't know. His eyes widened, as he saw what looked like a brown haired man in glasses and a lab coat skipping down the hall. Wait, he recognized that man.

"Sir?" He asked, drawing the teacher's attention.

"Yes, Mr. Meiou?" The teacher asked, causing Ranma to wince. He'd forgotten to ask Setsuna why she'd given her last name on his application form before, but this reminded him.

"I need to leave for a few minutes to," He trailed off, trying to think up an excuse. "do something." He finally said, knowing that he couldn't think of a lie in this short a time.

The teacher sighed. "Well, go and do 'something' then." He said, gesturing towards the door.

Ranma nodded, and quickly ran from the room. Proceeding in the direction where Tofu had run off, he saw several children looking on in astonishment and giggling. He thought that was a sign that he was probably close.

Rounding a corner, the young martial artist saw the form of the skipping doctor near the end of the hallway. Sprinting down, making sure to avoid the students in the way, he caught up and grabbed Tofu by the shoulder.

"Oh, Ryoga! How nice to see you here!" Tofu said, cheerfully, as he reached to shake Ranma's hand. Ranma jerked his hand away. The last time he'd let a Kasumified Tofu shake his hand, he hadn't been able to feel it for a week. The man was pretty far gone, as if he'd been in the same room with the oldest Tendo for a few minutes before skipping out. That was impossible, though. Wasn't Kasumi back in Nerima? Was it possible that there was another girl that could cause the same reaction in the doctor?

"What's the matter, Ryoga?" Tofu asked, reaching for Ranma's arm. Sighing, the pigtailed martial artist decided to use the method he'd found to snap Tofu out of his daze, a few weeks before he'd left Nerima. Grabbing the older man's arm, he threw him over his shoulder and landed him on his back with a loud thump.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Someone, one of the Jr. high school teachers, yelled as she marched up to Ranma. "How could you do that?"

Fortunately, Tofu was recovering, and standing from his position flat on the floor. "Sarah, I'm all right, and I actually thank Ranma here for bringing me back to my senses." He said, as he dusted his white coat off.

"you thank him for throwing you onto your back?" The teacher asked, blinking. At Tofu's nod, she shook her head slowly and walked down the hall.

As Tofu straightened himself out, Ranma looked him over. He wasn't wearing his usual brown Gi, but a blue dress shirt and black pants with a lab coat over them. On the right side of the coat, he wore a nametag that identified him as faculty. His glasses were half off his face, but not broken.

"Sorry if I threw ya too hard, doc." Ranma said, sheepishly.

"It's all right, Ranma." Tofu said, starting to walk towards a set of stares. He sighed.

"So what happened, there another girl who's like Kasumi here?" Ranma asked, shaking the Doctor's shoulder as his glasses began to fog up again.

Tofu sighed. "Actually, it is Kasumi." He said..

"Kasumi, here?" Ranma responded, surprised. "How?"

"Apparently she's taking the school's medical courses." Tofu explained, despondently. Ranma knew the reason for this. The doctor had left Nerima a few months after he'd come, specifically because of Kasumi. While he loved her, and his reaction to her proved it, that reaction was also causing him no end of trouble. Even in Nerima, a doctor who caused his patients pain wasn't something to be tolerated, and he'd been losing patients for years. It'd finally gotten to the point that he couldn't keep his business open, and he'd left to found a new practice elsewhere. Evidently, Kasumi had accidentally found him.

"Well, class is almost over. You've been dancin around for a while. Kasumi probably won't be in your classroom now." Ranma offered, lamely.

"But what if I meet her in the hallway?" Tofu asked, looking thoroughly miserable.

"Look, I got a break after this class, so I guess I could go with ya and make sure ya don't run into her." Ranma responded, feeling the absurdity of the situation. Here he was, offering to guard a guy from the girl he loved, not to mention a girl who would never dream of hurting anyone. Unfortunately, for Tofu, it was a fact of life.

HR.

About five minutes later, and ten floors up, Ranma opened the door to Dr. Tofu's classroom, seeing that the teacher's desk had been overturned. Fortunately, it seemed that all the students had left, including Kasumi. Tofu sighed, as he bent down and started picking up the papers from the floor. Ranma helped out by flipping the desk back to it's former position.

Tofu looked down at the papers, one of which was a list of names, obviously the class attendance list. "What am I going to do?" He muttered.

"Ya could ask for another teacher to take yer class." Ranma suggested, uncertainly.

Tofu shook his head. "None of the other doctors here use alternative medicine." He growled, as he shuffled the papers and placed them back on the desk. "And now I'm going to lose another job because I can't control myself around Kasumi." His glasses began to fog up once again, and Ranma reached out again to shake him out of it. "I can barely say her name!" He cried, slumping down into his chair.

"Well," Ranma said, uncomfortably. Tofu had helped him out by treating his injuries while he was in Nerima, and he felt uncomfortable seeing him so frustrated and upset now. "I wish I could help, but I got no idea of anything ta do."

"It's all right." Tofu said, shaking his head and raising one hand to his temple. "I'll talk to Suichi and see if I can get my classes switched."

"Suichi?" Ranma asked, uncomprehending.

"Dr. Tomoe. He's the one who founded the school. I knew him in medical school… though He's been acting a little strange lately." Tofu said, muttering the last part just loudly enough for Ranma to hear it. "Now you should probably get going to lunch, considering the amount of food you usually need to eat." He continued, attempting a grin.

"Yeah, I guess." Ranma said, looking up at the clock. It was half way through his lunch hour. Shrugging, he left the room, only looking back for a moment, to see that Tofu was continuing the rather large task of cleaning up his room after his Kasumi induced rampage.

HR.

Ranma muttered curses as she walked down the hallway to the room where her class had been. She'd accidentally run into a cleaning lady's bucket in the middle of the floor. She still didn't know how she ended up running into things like that, given her martial arts honed reflexes, but she'd given up on figuring it out soon after getting the curse.

Entering the room, she saw that it's normal students had reclaimed it, and it was full of little kids. Fortunately, her pack was still leaning against her desk and looked to be untouched. Picking it up, she slung it over her shoulder. It was at about this point that she noticed the disturbance on the other side of the room. There was a black haired girl being backed against a desk by a circle of larger boys.

She quickly moved towards the group, and caught a bit of their conversation.

"That was for Asuka's arm!" One of the boys said, having apparently just done something to the girl.

"B… But all I did was try to help!" She said, sounding scared.

"No you weren't! You cut her arm, and then tried that glowing hand thing on it!" The boy objected, approaching the girl again.

"But I didn't cut it!" She objected, desperately. "At least… I don't remember…"

"You don't remember? Well too bad!" The boy yelled, whipping out a leg to kick the girl. Ranma immediately moved, catching the foot in one hand.

"Hey, what'cha doin gangin up on a girl like that?" She asked, glaring around at the boys.

"But she…" The leader stuttered, his one foot still held in mid-air.

"I don't really care what she did, at least ya coulda faced her without yer friends." Ranma said, before dropping the leg. "You okay?" She continued, turning to the girl.

"Yes, I'm fine." The girl said, quietly. Ranma noticed that her eyes were a strange, bet still nice looking light purple color. For a second, she thought she saw something in them, but it vanished when she blinked. The girl was quite obviously holding an arm over her front.

"Did they already hit you?" Ranma pressed, putting a hand over the arm that was resting across the girl's stomach. "C'mon, I'll take ya to the nurse's office."

"Thank you." The girl murmured, following Ranma as she walked out of the room.

In the hallway, the girl's teacher approached, apparently coming from her lunch break. "Excuse me, where are you taking Hotaru?" She asked, blocking Ranma's way.

"I'm just takin her down to the nurse's office." Ranma responded, pulling her empty wallet out of her pocket and shifting through it to find her girl form's ID card. "Some of the kids were givin her a hard time, and I think she's hurt."

The teacher frowned, and Ranma heard her mumble "Not again," under her breath. Then, she looked over the ID card. "All right then, Ranko-san. Thank you for helping Hotaru."

"No problem." Ranma responded, before leading the quiet girl down the hall.

"Why did you help me?" Hotaru asked, as the two were nearing the nurse's office.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, confused.

"I asked why you helped me." The girl repeated. "Most people don't like me."

Ranma shrugged. "I don't see why anyone wouldn't like ya, you seem like a pretty nice kid." She said, not noticing that the girl was blushing. "Anyways, havin five people against one ain't a fair fight, so I really couldn't just let 'em beat you up. Well, I probably couldn't have let it happen if it'd just been that guy, but…" She admitted, before the two entered the nurse's office.

The on duty nurse seemed to recognize Hotaru, as when she saw her she frowned. "Oh, Hotaru-san. What happened this time?" She asked, concerned.

"I think someone kicked her in the gut." Ranma responded, letting go of the girl's hand.

The nurse knelt down and felt the young girl's stomach, causing a small wince. Her frown became deeper, but she stood up and looked back to Ranma anyways. " Thank you for bringing Hotaru in. I can take care of her now."

"All right, see ya Hotaru-chan." Ranma said, leaving the room.

"Goodbye Ranko-san." Hotaru said, waving. As the nurse guided her to a bed, she thought of the redhead she'd just met. She was such a nice person. She couldn't help but think, however, that she would change her opinion of Hotaru if she ever found out how much of a freak she was.

END.

Well, Here we have it. Tofu has appeared, and the much waited for Hotaru-chan. I know a lot of you probably hate me for mistreating her, but this IS how she lived at the beginning of SMS.


	22. Chapter 22, A father’s deal, a Senshi’s

Weebee stands in front of a microphone, with reviewers in front of him and cameras flashing. Ahem. Weebee taps mic. I've just called this conference to state outright that the warped imagination of sleepykittynapping, nappingsleepykitty, or any other iteration of said name, is NOT my fault. I mean, it's not like I've got telepathic powers that allow me to plant ideas in people's heads, or anything. Scratches head nervously.

Oh, also. Sorry for the four day update shortage, but Xanth novels are damned distracting!

Now that I've annoyed everyone and technically violated FFN's rules by answering a reviewer in a chapter, on with the show folks!

Chapter 22, A father's deal, a Senshi's will and a horse's age.

Unazuki sucked on the straw to her milkshake as she listened to Kasumi talk about her day at school. The older girl always seemed to like telling what had happened during her days, and the younger one didn't really mind listening. Today's events, however, caught the redhead's interest and she hadn't noticed her milkshake glass becoming empty two minutes ago. "So let me get this straight." She said, releasing the straw. "You have a teacher, who you knew in Nerima, and who dances around his classroom with a skeleton?"

"Oh, Tofu Sensei didn't have his skeleton this time." Kasumi clarified, from her position on the other side of the Crown fruit parlor, cleaning a table in preparation for closing time.

"Look, the skeleton doesn't matter." Unazuki said, exasperated. "I mean, this guy can't act like that all the time or there's no way he'd be a teacher."

"Hmm, I never thought about that." Kasumi said, putting a hand to her chin. "But he always acts that way when I'm around. He's so funny." Then, the eldest Tendo's eyebrows furrowed. "Akane-chan did tell me once that he acted differently when I wasn't around, but I didn't think it was important."

Unazuki sighed. She liked her family's new house guest, she really did, but she'd picked up the fact that Kasumi was a little oblivious sometimes. "Did you ever think there was a reason he acted like that around you?" She asked, attempting to lead the horse to water.

Kasumi thought for a moment, and then her eyes widened. "Oh my!" She said, and Unazuki's opinion of her ability to grasp the obvious increased. "Is he angry at me for something?" …Only to crash back down into it's former spot, and then a few levels below.

"Kasumi, the guy LIKES you!" Unazuki said, and to make sure she couldn't possibly misunderstand, she continued. "I mean, he really likes you. That's why he's acting so strange."

"Oh, well that's nice." Kasumi said, smiling.

When a few minutes passed without her saying anything else, her redheaded friend finally spoke up. "Well aren't you going to do something about it?"

The eldest Tendo just kept silent, but she had a contemplative expression on her face. What Unazuki had said, now that it was spelled out, made a great deal of sense. Truthfully, she had to admit that she'd always, subconsciously, known that Tofu liked her, but she'd had to deny it. He'd started acting strange around her when she was sixteen. he was about thirty, and about twice her age, but that hadn't been the issue. He was a kind man, and wouldn't have done anything to her.

No, the problem had been that she was still responsible for her sisters and father. Akane had only been thirteen, and even Nabiki was still a bit too young to support herself. Her father, well that was self-evident.

Now, however, she'd left home. She was in college and had a job. Did she really have a reason not to pursue Tofu? Well, there was one. What if his strange habit of acting funny stuck around after they got together? It was funny now, but she thought it'd get old fast. A small frown crossed her face. Still, it wouldn't hurt to try and see what happened, though she'd have to be sure to find some way to avoid him in school. Looking up from her deep thoughts, the eldest Tendo found that the tables of the fruit parlor were sparkling, and Unazuki's glass was cleaned and set next to the sink, but she was still cleaning the same table she'd started at. "Unazuki-chan?" She asked, looking around again. No one was there. "Oh, I hope I didn't upset her."

Sighing slightly, the slightly distracted Waitress left the room, switching off the lights.

HR.

The next day, Ukyo Kuonji listlessly flipped an Okonomiyaki with her giant spatula, sending it onto a plate and then sliding that over the counter to a waiting customer. Even though her attention wasn't really in the movement, she'd been making the things for years, and she didn't make a single mistake.

Ever since Ranma had come to talk to her a week ago, she'd been distracted. A substantial amount of the problem had been what Ranma had said to her, but it wasn't the major problem. No, that was the fact that her waiter was missing. Konatsu had been missing before. He disappeared for a few days at a time on a regular basis, but he usually told her how long he'd be gone and when he'd be back. Plus, he'd been gone for almost a week now, which was longer than he'd ever been gone before.

She shook her head. She did not miss Konatsu. Of course not. With that, the phone next to the cash register rang, abruptly jolting her out of her thoughts. "Hello, Ucchan's Okonomiyaki." She said, trying to sound cheerful. Her face immediately locked itself into a frown as she listened to the response.

"Ukyo, this is your father." Came the voice, from the other side of the phone. While she listened, she left her left hand on auto-pilot, keeping the Okonomiyaki on the grill from burning.

"What do you want." She snapped, annoyed. Her father was the holder of her family's honor, but she really didn't feel like giving him much respect at the moment.

The older man didn't comment on his daughter's rudeness. "It seems a highly placed family has taken some interest in the Saotome boy, and is trying to settle all of the engagements."

"So you're going to let me out of that stupid order to kill Ranma?" Ukyo returned, hopefully.

Her father growled. "That order was not stupid, it was, and still is, a matter of the honor of the Kuonji clan! No, this will not end it, I just wished to warn you that you should be quiet about it when you kill the boy. We are a ninja clan, after all."

"I'm not killing Ranma." Ukyo said, angrily. Before the man could retort, she continued. "I already tried once, and failed. Afterwards, I promised not to threaten him again."

"What?" Her father demanded, furious. "But this is a matter of the family…"

He was cut off. "You know what I think it is?" Ukyo asked, her voice beginning to rise. As customers turned to face her, she began to wish she'd taken the call in the back room but continued talking anyways. "I think it's the matter of an old man who's angry that he got fooled twelve years ago, that's what I think it is. I made a promise to Ranma that I wouldn't touch him and I'm going to keep it!"

"I see." Mr. Kuonji said, quietly. Ukyo braced for his condemnation of her for Disobeying her clan head, but she really didn't care anymore. "Well, I see that I was wrong to leave this task in your hands. I'll have to take care of it myself." Ukyo couldn't help the derogatory snort that escaped her at that comment. "Is something humorous, Ukyo?" He asked, coolly.

"Yeah," Ukyo said, before she could stop herself. "Ranma could flatten you in about thirty seconds."

Mr. Kuonji was obviously angry, but he kept his voice under control, unlike Ukyo who'd been shouting for the last few seconds. "Well, if that's true then I'll apologize to you and drop your honor debt, since it would be unrealistic to expect you to handle the boy. If it isn't, however, the consequences of disobedience to the clan will be severe."

Ukyo snorted. Her relationship with her father had been pretty well destroyed by the events of the past few weeks, so the idea of having Ranma beat him to a pulp was appealing. Plus, It would be a sure way to secure her name and future. "That's fine with me."

"Oh, and don't go warning the boy that I'm coming." The older man said, casually, before hanging the phone up. In that moment, Ukyo's frustration with the whole situation, Konatsu, her father and Ranma overwhelmed her and she flicked an Okonomiyaki she'd been preparing violently into the front door of the restaurant with a loud curse.

HR.

Haruka entered Setsuna's house, having left school before Ranma. Apparently, he'd selected Fridays as his juku days, so it'd take him a couple of hours to get home. She set her school bag down and entered the living room, however when she did so she saw Nodoka standing there alone. This, in itself, wasn't a surprise. The junior high school had started classes yesterday, and Setsuna wasn't home from work yet. What was surprising was that Nodoka had an expectant look on her face and a clothes hanger in her hands. Before the blonde could give voice to any questions, the older woman attacked.

Haruka was reluctant to go along with Nodoka at first, but after a few words of explanation, she was grinning. Even so, though, she thought that the auburn haired woman enjoyed 'prettying her up' far too much.

HR.

Ranma walked into the small library that hosted the Juku, bored. When he'd been in Furinkan he hadn't cared much about school, and to tell the truth he still didn't, but he thought that he should probably take it seriously this time, even if it was as boring as dirt.

His eyes caught for a second at the corner of the room, where a girl with blue-black hair sat reading a book. For a second he thought it was Akane, but the youngest Tendo had darker hair, and was taller and more muscular. This girl looked fifteen at the oldest, and he wondered why she was here.

Shrugging off his curiosity, he sat down at a nearby table and waited for the class to begin.

A little while later, after the teacher had introduced himself and the basics of the class had been laid out, he'd informed the students, or more accurately Ranma and the girl in the corner who was apparently also new, that the students of the Juku were organized into groups of two for the self study portion, and since they were the only ones free they were partners. Since the girl had a stack of books about half her size on the table, Ranma moved over and sat next to her.

"Hi, I'm Ranma." He introduced, settling his own much smaller stack of books next to hers.

"Ami." The girl said, quietly. She seemed pretty shy, and he hoped desperately that she didn't intend to start chasing him. Then again, he was probably being paranoid. After all, the only one who'd chased him without an engagement was Kodachi, and this girl was both much more sane looking and a little younger.

"Hey, why're you here?" He asked, bluntly, before realizing what he'd said and clarifying it. "I mean, this class is supposed to be to help high school and college students, and you don't look any older than 15."

The girl blushed. "I already passed the ones for the earlier grades." She answered, then noticed Ranma looking at her with his eyebrow raised. "I like school, and it's never too early to get started on higher grades. I've already got most of this year's assignments finished."

"But… you just started school yesterday." Ranma responded, half stunned. The girl, Ami, obviously wasn't bragging, but just stating a fact. If there was a scholastic equivalent to his martial arts ability, it would definitely be this girl.

"Excuse me, you at the back. Please begin the work that's been assigned!" The teacher said from the front of the room as he noticed Ranma and Ami's conversation.

The two immediately got down to studying, and Ranma found that Ami's advanced knowledge for her own age made her only a bit more knowledgeable on some subjects than he was, though she was a lot quicker to figure things out. It definitely made it easier for him though, since he could follow her interpretations, and then he had no trouble doing the problems himself.

The session was interrupted once by the sound of a small computer Ami had beeping, but she quickly silenced it and they continued on.

HR.

Ami Mizuno sighed in relief as Ranma exited the library. He seemed like a perfectly nice person, but her computer had given a signal related to him earlier, and this made her nervous. Gathering her books and stuffing them quickly into her book bag, she slung it over her shoulder and almost fell over. Maybe she should have taken fewer books. Shrugging it off, she quickly left the building herself, heading over to a nearby bench.

Opening the computer, she checked the message it contained. It hadn't been high priority, which had been why she hadn't bothered making an excuse to check it during class, but she thought that she should probably check it quickly.

As the report came up onto the screen, she frowned. The computer had detected two things out of the ordinary. One was a very high life energy level. This, in itself, was a good thing. Most dark kingdom or related threats tended to have unnaturally low levels of life force. The second report caused her eyebrow to raise. The older boy had some sort of magical field around him that she couldn't identify.

This could be a problem, and she'd have to bring it up during the next Senshi meeting. Luckily, that meeting would take place tomorrow.

HR.

Ranma entered the house, dropping his pack next to Haruka's and then looking up… whereupon his eyes popped wide open. Haruka was standing at the base of the stares, Her short hair styled a little and her face lightly made up. She also wore a yellow blouse and knee length blue skirt. It wasn't the most overwhelmingly feminine outfit, but like Ukyo, when Haruka dressed even a little like a girl it had a profound impact. "Guh?" Ranma articulated, sounding a lot like Haruka had the first time she'd seen Ranma's girl side all dressed up.

"So you like it, eh?" The blonde said, dryly. At his numb nod, she laughed and walked up to him. "Come on."

Ranma just shrugged, and allowed Haruka to lead him out of the house, never noticing the grinning Nodoka behind him. Setsuna should have also been here by this point, but she hadn't shown up.

HR.

A few minutes later, after Ranma had gotten back a little of his common sense, he finally got his mouth to articulate properly. "So, why'd ya do this? I mean I didn't think ya liked dressing like this."

Haruka smiled. "Well, I won't do it very often, so enjoy it."

"Yeah, but I thought I was supposed ta be the girl for our next date." Ranma said, then continued at Haruka's frown. "Not that I'm complainin."

"Ranma, what day is it?" Haruka asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Erm," Ranma said, searching his mind for the answer. He'd seen Hiroshi's girlfriend, Yuka, ask him this question and when he'd eventually said he couldn't remember she'd hauled off and slapped him. He doubted Haruka would do that, but still he scrambled to find an answer. First, he tried one of the ones Hiroshi had thrown out. "It's the anniversary of when we first met?"

Haruka blinked. The boy was actually right, or almost so. They'd met almost a month ago, within a few days at the very least, but that hadn't been what she was talking about. "You mean you honestly don't know what day it is?" She continued, sounding disbelieving.

"Yeah, I guess so." Ranma responded, sheepishly.

"It's your birthday, Ranma!" Haruka exclaimed.

The boy looked surprised, before opening up his wallet and checking his ID. "Oh, yeah." He said, feeling a little like an idiot.

"How could you have forgotten about that?" Haruka continued, laughing.

"The old man didn't really think of celebratin birthdays, so I sorta forgot about it a while ago." Ranma admitted. "It just didn't come up in Nerima, though he should have thought that it was coming up at some time soon. He'd arrived at the Tendo place shortly after turning sixteen, and had spent almost two years there so turning eighteen a month after he left really shouldn't have been a surprise. "That still don't tell me why you're dressed like that." He continued, his mind returning to it's previous track.

"I'm taking you to an all you can eat restaurant for dinner, and I figured you should get to be a guy on your birthday. Think of it as my present to you. Is that all right with you?" Haruka said, sounding a bit sarcastic near the end.

"Yeah, it's fine so long as ya tell me when yers is comin up, since I'll probably forget about it." Ranma countered.

Haruka laughed. "Sounds fine to me."

HR.

"I can't believe you can dance that well." Haruka said, as she and Ranma returned to Setsuna's house later that night. She had been taught how to dance as a matter of course, no matter how much she complained, but Ranma's skill in the art had surprised her.

"Well, there was this martial arts ballroom dancer who showed up a few months ago." Ranma said, shrugging.

Haruka was inclined to ask if he was joking, until she saw that his face was perfectly straight. Once again, she wondered at the strangeness of Nerima. The two entered the house quietly, noticing that the lights were all off. After creeping up the stairs, they looked at each other for a few moments, before kissing. They had done this a few times by now, and Ranma thought that he should be developing an immunity to the stunning effect. This immunity hadn't quite manifested however, and for about five seconds he knew how Tofu Sensei felt.

He shrugged himself out of his trance, and headed for his room only to stop at the door and look at the inside in a state of confusion.

"Hey Ranma, you aren't going to believe this but…" Haruka started, walking up next to him before seeing into the room as well.

Walking inside, Ranma headed to the head of the massive oak double bed that was there, picking up a small red card that was hanging from one of the top posts. He flipped it over, one side being blank, and read it. "I thought I should remedy the error I made earlier. Happy Birthday. Signed: Setsuna." Underneath the writing, there was a small smiley face, it's right eye drawn in a wink. "Let me guess, your bed's gone." At Haruka's nod, Ranma handed her the card and mumbled, "I'm gunna kill Setsuna tomorrow."

"What are you doing?" The blonde asked, seeing the pigtailed martial artist rummaging through his pack in the closet.

"I'm gunna get my Futon and set it up downstairs." Ranma responded, pulling the rolled up thin mattress out of the pack.

"You don't have to do that." Haruka said, walking over and taking it. "I'll go." Ranma, of course, refused. The minor argument went on for about five minutes before Haruka got frustrated.

"C'mon." She said, grabbing Ranma and pulling him towards the bed.

"What're you doin?" He yelped, as he let her sit him down.

Look, neither of us are going to give up on this, and I'm tired. Let's just use the bed." Haruka said, pulling the covers away from the head of the bed on the other side and climbing in.

"But…" Ranma protested, but was quickly silenced by Haruka, who tugged him down to a laying position. He could have resisted, of course, but really didn't want to. He crawled under the covers on his own side of the bed, and within a few seconds was asleep. Somehow, he was a lot more comfortable than usual.

HR.

From the gates of time, Setsuna grinned at the sight of Ranma and Haruka sleeping. She knew that her relentless teasing of the couple wasn't precisely what was expected of a tens of thousands of years old being, but then, most of them didn't see their own imminent deaths in dozens of timelines.

Recently, she'd been seeing one event clearly in the future histories of other lines. Normally, it was hard to see enough of a line, close enough to her own time and situation, to use it to predict much. A few years ago, however, she'd gotten lucky, if that word could possibly be applied to such a thing, and caught a brief glimpse of a falling helicopter.

Sailors Neptune and Uranus were in the pilot's cabin, and as she'd watched, their version of Pluto had teleported in and used the forbidden time stop spell. She didn't know much about that spell, since all she'd ever been told was that it would kill her instantly if she used it incorrectly, and almost ANY use was an incorrect one.

She'd had a full, or perhaps overly-full, life, at over 15,000 years. and didn't really have a problem with her impending doom. She'd ensured as much of the senshi's safety as she could, and if she had a little fun before she went, she was sure no one would begrudge her that.

END.

Okay, let me say this once and for all. You will KNOW when my fics end. You will not have to ask me. The word END at the end of a chapter will not be the only evidence of the fact that the fic is over. By the way, no. this chapter is NOT the end of this fic. In fact, aside from a single oneshot, NONE of my work on the site at the moment is finished, even if some of it's been waiting years for an update. So please, don't ask me that question again, it could give my muse ideas.


	23. Chapter 23, Minako or a Demon, Hmm Toug

Another one where you don't wanna read the end notes 'till the end, folks.

Now on with the show!

Chapter 23, Minako or a Demon, Hmm. Tough choice.

A red haired woman in a skimpy black and red outfit stood in the middle of a dark room, facing a man in a lab coat. The man's face couldn't be seen, only his glasses visible.

"You called, sir?" The girl asked. She sounded respectful, but also annoyed, as if she'd much rather be doing something else.

"Yes, Eudial. The Daimon egg is now complete, and needs to be tested." The shadowed man said, holding something in his hand. "You must find a subject with a pure heart crystal to extract."

The girl smiled. "I( believe I've already found one, professor." She said, as she took the small egg-like object and inspected it.

"Oh, who?" The man asked, curiously.

"The Tendo girl. You know, the one who causes Tofu-sensei to space out." The redhead explained. She took a few of the same classes as Kasumi, and through observation, had decided that if she didn't have a pure heart no one did.

"Oh yes, Ono's girlfriend. I'm glad that I never act like he does!" The professor said, before starting to cackle manically. As he did so, a red smiling mouth seemed to become visible from the shadow of his face.

"Yes, you don't act like him at all…" Eudial muttered quietly, a large sweat drop falling down the back of her head as she looked at her cackling boss.

HR.

Akira Kuonji grunted in annoyance as he slammed his phone down. That was the fifth time he'd come close to finding information about Ranma Saotome, and the fifth time that the information had proven to be false. It was almost like someone was laying out false trails specifically to mislead him.

He sighed. He'd wanted to have some idea where to find Ranma. Well, some idea that involved an area smaller than the entire Minato ward, at least. He knew that his child wouldn't tell him, even if he called her back. It looked like he'd have to hunt the boy down himself, and that would be hard since he didn't even know what he looked like anymore.

Getting up from his chair in the back of his yatai, he reached up into a hollow of the roof and withdrew a gleaming steel battle spatula and a bandoleer of mini spatulas. Putting them both on, he closed the cart's shutters and picked it up by the front handles in preparation to move it into storage. He would exact his clan's revenge on the Saotomes, come hell or high water.

HR.

Rei smiled as Makoto entered the shrine, holding a box that she knew was full of food. Most of it would be devoured by Usagi, but the bit she could get would certainly be good. Her grandfather was in the fire room, Yuuichiro was out trying to get a bar to let him play his guitar there, and she wasn't quite sure where Konatsu was but she hadn't seen the cross-dressing boy all morning.

"Hi, Mako-chan." She said, greeting the brown haired girl and taking the box from her.

"Hi Rei." Makoto said, before warning. "There's liquid in there, so try and keep it level, okay?"

Rei nodded before carefully taking the box into the living room, where the meeting was to take place. Minako arrived a few moments later, and Artemis took a position near the door to watch for anyone coming into the room, While still being able to hear and contribute to the conversation.

Ami arrived last, carrying her usual pile of books for after the meeting, when she'd make all the other girls study. None of them really minded this, however. The blue haired girl was a good part of the reason why they were doing so well in school.

"So, how long do you think the meatball head'll take today?" Rei asked, reaching over to open the box containing Makoto's food. To her surprise, she found several bowls of ramen inside.

"Rei, that's not nice." Ami said, chidingly, as she opened her computer and started typing.

"Well, you know what they say. Most things never change." Minako said, cheerfully. The others looked at her in surprise for a moment. That expression had actually been pretty close to correct.

"So what's with the Ramen, Makoto?" Rei asked, dropping the subject of Usagi's lateness.

Makoto shrugged. "I thought it'd be a nice change." She said, though she was blushing a bit.

Minako, self proclaimed Senshi of love, caught this immediately. "I think she made it because that's what that cute chef she likes cooks." She was rewarded by an increase in her friend's blush. It was at this moment that Usagi arrived. She'd apparently run right into the shrine and down to Rei's room, as she skidded in at full speed.

"Sorryi'mlateguysIdidn'tgetupontime!" She babbled, as Luna jumped off of her shoulder and to the floor, where she immediately walked over to join Artemis.

"What else is new?" Rei remarked, causing a hurt pout from her best friend.

Usagi's hurt expression immediately faded, however, when she caught sight of the ramen bowls in the middle of the room. About half a second later, she'd pulled up a cushion between Rei and Ami and was digging in.

\"Now that everyone's here," Ami said, brushing one of Usagi's pigtails from where it had fallen across her keyboard when she sat down. "Should we get started?"

"Started?" Usagi asked, taking a break from her rapid eating to glance at the blue haired girl. "But we beat the dark moon, there's no Senshi business to talk about right now, is there?"

"There have been a few more random youma attacks lately than usual." Makoto contributed, remembering the one that had almost killed her before Mousse had rescued her.

"There isn't another new enemy, is there?" The blonde rabbit girl asked, biting her fingernails.

"We can't jump to that conclusion." Ami said, but frowned. "Though I've found something odd recently that could indicate that."

"What is it?" Minako, who'd been quiet so far, asked as she leaned forward.

"At my Juku yesterday, there was a boy who radiated an unidentified magical field. I normally wouldn't be worried about that, except for the fact that Ail and An infiltrated our school without being noticed before." Ami explained.

"So what's this guy's name?" Minako asked.

"He said his name was Ranma." Ami responded, before noticing Rei's surprised look. "Something wrong, Rei?"

"I don't know." Rei said, her eyes narrowing. "There's a new guest at the shrine who says he knows a Ranma, but I didn't think Konatsu was a bad person."

"Maybe we could ask him and see if it's the same one." Usagi asked, cheerfully. "I'll go find him."

"Usagi, wait!" Rei called, before a shape suddenly detached itself from one of the room's walls. She gaped at the form of the male Kunoichi, who had been hiding in the room for the entire meeting. "Erm, Konatsu? What are you doing in here?!" She yelled, shocked.

"I recall telling you that I was a ninja, Rei-san. Finding others' secrets is part of my job." The boy said, seeming to see nothing wrong with his actions.

"But…" The shrine maiden sputtered, looking around at the others for help. The Senshi had been keeping their identities secret for years, and now it seemed that her new house guest had found out within a week. "Look, Konatsu. How much did you hear?"

"I heard you and your friends discussing the defeat of Demons, and the possibility of a new threat from a person named Ranma." The boy said, calmly. "From this I assume that you are devil hunters. Since there is only one group of devil hunters in the district, and your friend referred to the meeting as 'Senshi business,' you are the sailor Senshi." In a lot of ways, Konatsu wasn't precisely the sharpest tool in the shed. He didn't have much education in society outside of his old tea house, and most forms of mathematics were completely beyond him, but when it came to figuring out other people's business, he was as he was trained to be, very good.

"Look, Konatsu. It's very important that you don't tell anyone about that." Ami said, having picked up the name of the girl, or was it boy, in front of her from Rei and deciding that denying the facts now would be pointless. "If everyone knew who the Senshi were, they could go after our families or friends in order to stop us."

The ninja nodded. "That is understandable. I will not tell your secret to anyone aside from my mistress, Ukyo-sama, and only her if she orders me to do so."

All of the Senshi didn't look too pleased at this response, but they really couldn't do much about it. They had been careful not to let anyone know their identities because, truthfully, they couldn't really do anything other than ask anyone who found out not to tell. "I guess that'll have to do." Rei muttered, annoyed. She couldn't believe that Konatsu would sneak into the room and listen to a group of teenaged girls during a study meet.

"So," Makoto asked, looking at Konatsu in a mixture of curiosity and wariness. "Who's this girl?"

"It's a long story." Rei said, but as Usagi stared at her levelly, she finally started telling it, baths and all.

About five minutes later, Makoto and Minako were sitting there with sparkling eyes. Evidently, as Rei had thought before, they thought that Konatsu's story was really romantic. Usagi and Ami were just looking confused, though Usagi was leaning towards the reaction of the other two Senshi.

Ami was annoyed. Konatsu had managed, unintentionally, to completely derail the meeting. She knew Makoto, and especially Minako. Within a few seconds, yeah. She could see the gleam in the girl's eye now. Sighing, she looked back into her computer screen. The other Senshi were her best friends, but some of them could be irritating at times.

"I got it!" Minako shouted, startling everyone other than Ami. "I'll help Konatsu impress Ukyo!"

"What?" Rei asked, flatly.

"Yeah, I'm sure I can get him and Ukyo together! Just leave it to Minako Aino, senshi of LOVE!" The other Senshi and Konatsu, who had been helping Rei tell her story, all looked nervous, but the ninja looked hopeful.

"You'll really help me impress Ukyo-sama, Minako-san?" He asked, suddenly appearing in front of her with his eyes turned up to her pleadingly.

The blonde blinked. It was really too bad Ukyo wasn't a boy, since Konatsu would catch her easily in that case, given the amount of cute he was radiating. She would have to do something about that. "Of course I will."

"Oh, thank you Minako-san." The boy said, before bowing several times.

"Poor guy." Rei mumbled, her anger about his previous spying seeming to fade a little. Ami had to agree.

HR.

Ranma left his music class, his backpack slung over his shoulder. He'd had a pretty good day, so far. Setsuna had showed up this morning, after spending the weekend apparently on a business trip. Personally, he thought that she'd been trying to avoid him after her little prank on Friday night, though he wasn't really inclined to say anything anymore. Hitting the button to call the elevator, since the music rooms were at the top of the building, he quickly boarded and headed down.

A few floors lower, the door opened and someone entered. Ranma's eyes widened as he saw them. "K, Kasumi?" He stuttered.

Kasumi was just as surprised, but giggled. "Ranma-kun, you sound like Tofu-sensei." She said, cheerfully. "I didn't know you came here."

"Yeah, well." Ranma said, unsure of what to say. "I didn't really know either, ta tell the truth."

The girl laughed again, and then did something that surprised Ranma. She hugged him. It wasn't a romantic hug, he'd gotten really good at avoiding those. She just seemed really glad to see him. "I missed you, Ranma-kun."

"Aw, jeaz." Ranma said, scratching the back of his head. "I missed you to, Kasumi." He continued, sheepishly. The girl let go of him and stood next to him for a few seconds, before he had to say something. "So how's Akane and Nabiki?"

"Nabiki is acting the same as she always does," Kasumi replied, and then frowned a little when she thought of Akane. "Akane… is hard to judge."

"She ain't in trouble or somethin, is she?" Ranma asked, concerned.

"Oh, no. She's fine." The eldest Tendo thought for a moment before speaking again. "Your leaving hurt her quite a bit, Ranma-kun."

The pigtailed boy looked down. "Yeah, I kinda thought it would." He responded, sadly.

"Ranma-kun, it wasn't all because of you." The eldest Tendo said, trying to cheer the boy up. "Kuno-san started his challenges again, but he left and came here to look for you, and there was Ryoga."

'Yeah, there was Ryoga,' Ranma thought. But wait, Kuno was here? He and Kasumi got off of the elevator, heading towards a small area where there was a few sets of lockers. They talked for a few more minutes, Ranma learning a bit about what had happened in Nerima while Kasumi found out what he'd been doing since he'd left.

As the two reached the brown haired girl's locker, she stopped and looked at Ranma. "Despite your leaving having hurt Akane and caused some problems, I think it was probably the right thing to do." She said, in a surprisingly sure voice.

"Huh?" Ranma responded, blinking. He'd been in the process of leaving when Kasumi spoke, but quickly turned to face her. He honestly wasn't used to a statement that certain coming from the girl.

"Sometimes, people have to be unhappy for a while for the greater good, and it sounds like you, Mousse and probably Ukyo are better off for it, at least." Normally, Kasumi didn't make associations like that, however she understood the idea of sacrifice for the greater good. She'd been doing it for her family for over eight years, after all.

Ranma was about to respond, when a strange dark smoke began to emanate from the bag Kasumi had just placed in her locker. "What the hell's that?" He asked, pointing over the girl's shoulder.

Kasumi immediately turned around, however the smoke seemed to have surrounded the bag and begun to grow rapidly. The Daimon, which Eudial had implanted that afternoon during a class that she shared with Kasumi, had finally manifested. Within about three seconds, there was some sort of monster standing in front of the girl. The creature was vaguely female in shape, and consisted of various items of school supplies and pieces of backpack that were all jumbled together. It's arms and legs looked like the straps of the pack, with clawed appendages at their ends.

Kasumi tried to scream, but the creature lashed out with one arm, picking her up off the floor. Ranma was moving before the arm reached it's target, but ended up getting there too late.

A star on the creature's chest flashed with a bright light, and a small white glowing crystal floated out of Kasumi's chest.

The creature tossed the girl away, and Ranma caught her. "Hey, you okay, Kasumi?" He asked, shaking her shoulder. There was no response. Scanning her aura quickly, he got a shock. It seemed that she barely had any, and what she did have was leaking out of her body. At this rate, she wouldn't survive for more than an hour.

At this point, the demon tried to exit the alcove where the lockers were, but ended up making a loud banging noise that drew Ranma's attention. Since he was still in the mindset to read auras as he turned towards it, he quickly realized that the crystal in it's hand contained most of Kasumi's.

"Hey you, give that back!" He shouted, as he moved quickly to block the creature's path of escape. The creature didn't respond. The pigtailed martial artist jumped at the creature, trying to retrieve the crystal from one of it's clawed hands, but it had a good grip on it and he didn't want to exert too much pressure for fear of breaking the crystal and possibly killing Kasumi.

During the martial artist's distraction, the Daimon swatted him off of it's body with it's free hand, sending him flying into a wall on the other side of the hall. Fortunately, the school was currently pretty empty of students and he didn't hit anyone.

"That's it." He muttered, figuring that he'd try a Moko Takabisha. After all, this demon didn't seem to absorb the chi from his limbs like the last one he'd fought, so it was possible that Chi based projectiles could hurt it.

"Moko Takabisha!" He shouted, as he cupped his hands and fired a bolt of Chi at the thing's stomach. His eyes widened in horror as it brought Kasumi's crystal to block the blast. Fortunately, it didn't seem to do any damage. The energy just got sucked in, and the crystal's brightness increased. "Damn, so it can block my chi blasts, too." Ranma cursed.

As he tried to think of something else to do, his right hand fell to his side, and brushed against something in his pocket. It was that thing that sailor Senshi had given him. "Well, if I ever needed ta fight one of these things, it's now." He said, reaching into his pocket and withdrawing the small blue-green pen.

Unsure of how to use it, he held it up in front of his face as if to ward the demon off, and some words came to his mind. Without hesitation, he raised the hand and called them out. "Neptune planet power, Make up!" He mentally winced. That sounded pretty stupid. All thoughts of how strange the activation phrase was were quickly forgotten, as a column of water formed around his body, instantly triggering his curse. She felt her clothes dissolving and reforming, as her hair came loose from its pigtail and fell down her back. When everything was finished, she found herself standing with her legs apart and one arm raised.

The first thing she noticed after the transformation was that her arm was now covered with a white glove. When she looked down, she saw that she had a large blue-green bow on her chest, with a hemispherical crystal in the middle. Below that was a skirt of a similar color, and a white leotard covered her upper body. In other words, she was wearing a similar uniform to Pluto's. After a second of shocked silence, she made a promise. If this helped her rescue Kasumi, then she could deal with it. She'd worn worse during fights before. If it didn't, however, she would find sailor Pluto and do bad things to her.

Shrugging, the newly transformed Sailor Neptune jumped into the fight.

HR.

At the gates, where she had, as Ranma suspected, been hiding for the past few days, Setsuna smiled. One of the outer Senshi had been awakened, now only one more to go, excepting Saturn. She shuddered. She just hoped that one would never have to see the light of day.

HR.

In her small dark room, Hotaru Tomoe sneezed softly before returning to her homework.

END.

Weebee stands, looking seriously out at the readers. Okay people, it's time. Dumbledork and his ilk at the Fukufic forums have just gotten some new fodder for the cannons. Now, my question. Will this go down in history as another Sailor Ranko? Doubtful. I just prey that it won't fade into unknown obscurity like half a million other fukufics on the net, now that the Ranma has been Fukued. Weebee takes deep breath. Tonight I shall eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow, I may be flamed!

Ah, another cliffie! I'm such an evil bastard!


	24. Chapter 24, Soldiers

Wow, I really gotta stop placing cliff hangers when ever I see the opportunity, it leaves some explanations to the next chapter that should really be given during the chapter with the cliffie… Oh well, they're fun anyways.

ON WITH THE SHOW!

Chapter 24, Soldiers.

Neptune frowned as she squared off with the Daimon, trying to think of a strategy. When she'd used the transformation pen, she'd thought that it was some sort of demon banishing charm, or that it'd let her attacks do damage. She hadn't expected to be added to the ranks of the magical girl defenders of the district. Still, it looked like that was what had happened, and she'd have to deal with it. She tried to gather her Chi into her limbs in order to attack, but found that it wouldn't respond. Her entire chi reserve seemed to be concentrated into the middle of her chest, only enough to keep her alive and on her feet coursing through her body. "How the heck am I gunna fight without chi enhancement?" She mumbled, before deciding that she'd better try, since she had no idea how to deactivate the transformation.

Charging in on the demon, she lashed out with a quick punch that surprised her with the speed at which it moved. Her muscles, unaided, shouldn't have been able to work that well, at least not without severe strain. Her second surprise came when the fist landed, a pulse of… something… shooting through it and sending the creature staggering back with a bellow of pain. She smiled. Maybe she could use this transformation, after all. She tried to get Kasumi's energy crystal out of the thing's hand again, but it still had it clenched in a death grip and she didn't want to put the crystal under too much stress. Shrugging, she decided to test her new ability to actually hurt this thing with physical attacks, bringing her hand down in a knife hand chop on it's wrist joint.

The joint gave with a sharp crack, and the Daimon's hand fell open, dropping the crystal for Neptune to scoop up. Unfortunately, during this distraction, she was hammered across the side by the enraged creature's other arm. The force of the blow sent her rolling over the floor, but it didn't seem to hurt as much as it had before the transformation, and she quickly sprang up with Kasumi's crystal in hand.

"Okay, let's see if you can still absorb attacks without the crystal!" She shouted, cupping her hands. Seemingly instinctively, a different set of words than usual came to her lips, and she felt something other than Chi forming between her palms. "Deep submerge!" She shouted, letting loose what looked like a huge ball of water. She gaped as she saw the thing. It had to be almost as tall as she was, and when it hit the demon it seemed to vaporize. She felt a brief pang of regret for killing the demon, but it was quickly forgotten as she saw the crumpled form of Kasumi on the floor.

Walking over to the oldest Tendo and kneeling, the newly transformed Senshi looked down at the crystal, trying to figure out what to do with it to restore it to the girl's body. Her eyes were caught by the shimmering facets of the glowing item. It was mostly white, with small sparks of yellow, blue and gold floating through it. She smiled. If this was Kasumi's essence, it was definitely as pure as the girl. Shaking her head, she tried holding the crystal over the girl's body and it immediately floated out of her hand and down into it's proper place.

Neptune's eyebrows went up as she saw the aura filling the girl's chi paths. Something about it looked strange. She blinked, and it seemed to return to normal. She was about to stand, when the brown haired girl's eyes flickered open and the two ended up locking gazes. 'Oh crap, she's gunna recognize me in this thing…' Neptune thought, barely suppressing a blush at the thought. The Senshi uniform may not have been the most revealing or embarrassing thing she'd ever worn, but it came close.

"Oh my." Kasumi said, bringing one hand up to rub the side of her head. As her eyes focused, she saw a reddish blur above her. For a second, she thought it was Ranma's girl form's hair, but as the blurriness faded, that idea also did. The girl who was looking down at her couldn't have been Ranma. She was wearing a gold tiara with a green stone in the middle, and her red hair was shorter and differently styled. "Oh, you're one of the sailor Senshi, aren't you?" She asked, as she noticed the rest of the girl's outfit.

"Erm, yes. I'm sailor Neptune." The girl said, looking nervous.

"My sister is a big fan of your group." Kasumi confided, as the Senshi helped her up. She looked around the room, seeing her backpack sitting in one corner, slightly waterlogged. The demon was gone, and she suspected that the Senshi had destroyed it. "Oh, where is Ranma-kun?" She asked, as she noticed the absence of the pigtailed martial artist.

"He..." Neptune said, desperately trying to think up an excuse for why her male form wasn't here. "He was the one who went to get me. I told him to get out of here."

Kasumi wondered about that, briefly. It didn't seem like something Ranma would do, but why would the Senshi lie? "Thank you for saving me, Neptune-san." She said, finally.

"No problem." Neptune said, looking sheepish as she walked away.

"Could I ask you for a favor before you go?" Kasumi asked, stopping the redheaded Senshi in her tracks. Neptune turned back, seeing that the oldest Tendo had grabbed her pack and was rummaging through it for something. A few seconds later, she came out with a half-dry piece of paper and a pen. "Could you sign an autograph for my sister Nabiki?"

The ocean Senshi barely resisted a face fault, looking at Kasumi as if to say "You've got to be kidding," but she'd always had a hard time refusing requests from Kasumi. Taking the pen and paper, she quickly signed her Senshi name. Her eyes widened slightly as she saw her hand writing. Ranma's writing was normally pretty sloppy, but the name was written in flowing, elegant script. Granted, Ranma could have done it that way if he'd really wanted to, but she seemed to do it automatically. "Here ya go, Kasumi." She said, handing the paper back. "Now I gotta go."

The brown haired girl accepted the paper, smiling. "Thank you again, Neptune-san." She said, briefly wondering how the magical girl knew her name. Ranma must have told her.

HR.

Dr. Tomoe stared at the security footage of the school, an annoyed look on his face. He'd pulled up the cameras around that Kasumi girl all day, hoping to see his Daimon's performance. Unfortunately, it seemed that when the thing had actually attacked and some martial artist friend of the girl's had started to fight it off, the cameras in the area had suffered from technical problems. By the time they'd sorted themselves out, one of the sailor Senshi had shown up.

The Daimon hadn't been built to withstand much magical damage, and the Senshi had wiped it out easily. It wasn't a big loss, the girl's heart crystal hadn't contained one of the talisman, but it was still annoying. He had to smile a little, though. The Daimon egg had done what it was supposed to. After a few minor adjustments, he could begin mass-producing them. He began laughing maniacally.

Down the hall in the witches 5 office, Ptilol looked up from a book, glancing at Eudial. "What's he laughing at?" She asked, annoyed.

"Do we really want to know?" Eudial responded, shrugging. In one of their few times of full agreement, the other witches all shook their heads at the same time.

HR.

Sailor Neptune perched on the edge of a roof, distinctly nervous. She'd found that she could still roof hop as a Senshi, even without access to the majority of her chi, but her maximum levels of strength and speed were about five times less than she was used to. Granted, this was still substantially stronger than the average person, but it annoyed her.

This wasn't what was worrying her, however. That was the fact that she hadn't figured out how to get out of the Senshi outfit. She'd even tried using hot water, but it seemed to have no effect. If this damned thing had locked her curse, she'd have to do bad things to Pluto even though it had helped Kasumi, and if she was locked AND stuck in this fuku, the other Senshi would probably have to fear for her life.

Neptune had tried taking the fuku off the normal way, but it seemed to have no seams, let alone buttons or other ways to get it off. Maybe she could go find some other Senshi, and ask them how to get out of the suit. "Pluto, where the hell are you?" She muttered, glaring out at the city.

"I'm right behind you." Came a voice, causing the redhead to turn around, her leg coming up in a hard spin kick. The time Senshi brought up her staff, but it didn't make it up quite fast enough and she ended up flying across the roof.

"Oh crap, sorry 'bout that." Neptune said, as the time Senshi skidded to a stop. She hadn't really intended to kick her like that. It'd been an automatic response to the surprise, but it had definitely been satisfying.

"It's fine." Pluto said, standing up. "I'll just have to remember not to sneak up on you anymore. Now are you going to do that again, or can we talk?"

Neptune scratched the back of her head. "Well, that was mostly an accident, and yeah. I think we should probably talk. Ya wanna tell me why ya recruited me for yer little magical girl team? Oh, and more importantly, how the heck do I get outta this fuku?"

Pluto smiled. "Getting out of the uniform is easy. Just touch the stone in the center of your bow and will it away. As for why I chose you, I didn't."

Neptune immediately followed Pluto's instructions, and sighed in relief as she felt the Senshi uniform fading away and returning her normal clothes. She blinked in surprise as she felt her pigtail reform as well. Ranma quickly checked that everything fit right, or as closely to right as it ever did on her girl form, then looked back to Pluto. "Wadda ya mean you didn't choose me? I mean ya gave me the stick thing and everything."

The Senshi of time pondered for a moment, before seeming to find the correct words. "The current Senshi are reincarnations of their previous forms. In a past life, you were Neptune, and you're the only one who can use the transformation pen to become Neptune again. It wasn't my, or anyone else's, choice to pick you or not pick you. You simply are."

"Okay, so in a past life I was this Senshi person." Ranma said, trying not to think that that probably meant her past self had been an actual girl. "So why didn't ya just tell me this in the first place?"

"Would you have taken the pen if you'd known that it would transform you into a Senshi when you used it?" Pluto asked, her left eyebrow raising. She was surprised by the response.

"Yeah, probably. I mean, I wouldn'ta done it unless I had to, but considerin that Kasumi was in danger and it was the only way to save her, I'd do it. I mean, my personal pride ain't as important as someone's life, especially someone like Kasumi." The pigtailed redhead winced. She'd spoken truly, but she still didn't like the overly-frilled Senshi uniform one bit.

"Hmm, perhaps I misjudged you, Ranma." Pluto said, her surprise not evident on her face. "My question is, will you continue to fight as a Senshi in future? I believe that the outer Senshi are going to be needed soon, and you are one of them. You can decline, of course. I cannot make you assume your role."

Ranma stood there for a minute, thinking. She was supposed to protect the weak, and Pluto said she, as well as some other 'outer Senshi,' whoever they were, were going to be needed. Still, she didn't particularly like the idea of joining a magical girl team. Now THAT was the biggest understatement in history. "I… I don't know." She said, uncertainly. "I need time ta think about it."

"I understand." Pluto said, raising her staff to teleport out. "I will be back when and if you next transform." With that, the Senshi of time vanished into the darkness, leaving one slightly confused redhead standing on the roof of a small office building.

HR.

Later that night, Ranma entered the Meiou house, once again in male form. He'd come close to fainting with relief when, in civilian form, his curse had worked as it was supposed to. Also, his chi had been released from the lock it had been put under when he was Neptune. That was a good thing, since it would have been hard for her to get off the roof Pluto had left her on if she hadn't been able to roof hop.

"Hey Ranma," Haruka, who was leaning back in a chair in the living room, called. "Where were you after school? I was waiting for you."

"Oh, sorry Haruka. One of those youma ended up attackin a friend of mine." Ranma said, without thinking.

"Wait, there was a youma attack at the school?" The blonde asked, sitting up straight in surprise. She studied Ranma, noticing a few rips in his clothes from his fight with the creature before he'd transformed. "Are you all right? I mean last time you fought one it half killed you."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ranma said, wincing as he noticed Nodoka, who was standing at the bottom of the stares, looking at him nervously. "One of the Senshi showed up and destroyed it."

"Yeah, considering the fact that they wear almost non-existent skirts and leotards, the Senshi are tougher than they look." Haruka said, before grinning. "They're pretty cute, though."

Ranma's eye twitched.

"You all right, Ranma?" Haruka asked, concernedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He muttered, not quite sure how to take Haruka's statement.

"So who was the friend who was attacked?" Nodoka asked, concerned, as she entered the living room.

"It was Kasumi." Ranma said, then quickly continued as Nodoka's worry increased. "She was fine last time I saw her, so don't worry."

"The older woman frowned. I don't know, Maybe I should go and see her to see if she's all right tomorrow."

Ranma shrugged. "Sure, it'd probably be a good idea, but I got no idea where she lives."

"I'll have to call Akane-chan or Nabiki and ask." Nodoka responded, causing Ranma to become apprehensive.

"Just remember not ta tell Nabiki where I am, in case she decides ta sell the information or somethin." He mumbled.

"Oh, I'm sure Nabiki-chan wouldn't do that." Nodoka said, looking at Ranma reprovingly.

"I dunno." The pigtailed boy said, flopping down on the couch next to Haruka. Oh well, considering the fact that almost everyone had already shown up, he doubted if Nabiki finding out where he was would cause a problem.

HR.

In her room, Setsuna lay on her bed thinking about her encounter with Ranma earlier that night. It could have gone better, though she had doubted that it would. In fact, she had been sure that he would have rebelled against the idea of being a Senshi quite a bit when he first found out.

The reality had been quite the surprise. The, at the time, girl hadn't rejected the idea of being a Senshi outright as expected, but had asked for some time to think about it. From reading a report she had bought off of Nabiki for an exorbitant amount of money, one of the reasons that Kasumi could even go to college, and her brief glimpses of Ranma's past in the gates, Setsuna had picked up on one characteristic of Ranma. He couldn't be forced to do anything. Well, he could, but the results were often not what you wanted, and he would struggle with you the whole way.

For now, she would have to wait and see what happened. Who knew, the Neptunian Senshi could decide on her, his, damn the pronouns regarding Ranma were confusing, their own that becoming a Senshi was necessary.

If Ranma didn't make that decision, she would have to interfere if only to save the other Senshi, but she really didn't want to. With these troubled thoughts swirling through her head, the tine Senshi fell asleep.

HR.

At the Furuhata residence, Kasumi got out of the furo after a long and restful bath, sighing in contentment. Today had been exciting, even though she hadn't managed to find Tofu. She'd cut the wet part of the paper with that nice sailor senshi's signature off, and sent the autograph with a letter to Nabiki.

She hoped her sister liked it, considering how obsessed she was with the Senshi. No one else in the house knew about her secret cache of sailor Senshi merchandise, but Kasumi had found it when cleaning under her bed one day. Well, she was just glad that Nabiki had an interest aside from making money.

Looking into the mirror above the sink as she toweled off her hair, the oldest Tendo stopped in surprise. There was some sort of light coming from her eyes. Leaning in and looking closer, she saw that her eyes were glowing faintly. "Oh my, what's happened?" She said, blinking. When her eyes opened again, the glow was gone. "I guess it was nothing." Shrugging, she finished drying herself off and went into the changing room to change clothes.

HR.

Akira Kuonji stepped off of the train, looking around the station. He was getting a few strange looks due to the giant spatula that was slung over his shoulder, but he ignored those. He'd stopped in Nerima, where he'd heard Nabiki Tendo tended to give people information, but it seemed that she was an ally to the Saotome boy, as she refused to tell him anything. It looked like he'd have to spend some time searching the Minato ward, from top to bottom if necessary.

As he walked down the street outside of the station, he heard something that stopped him in his tracks. "'Tis the chef Kuonji, what art thou doing in this ward at this time?"

Akira looked around, seeing a young man in a blue and black outfit, holding a bokuto." How do you know me?" He asked, suspiciously.

"Oh, I apologize good sir, I mistook the for another who wields a weapon of similar shape and size to yours." The boy said, calmly. "If you excuse me, I must continue my quest for the sorcerer Saotome."

Akira's eyes narrowed. "You know Ukyo?" He asked, thinking that she could be the only other person in the area who carried a large spatula as a weapon. "And you are looking for a Saotome?"

"Ah, Ukyo Kuonji. Surely the maker of the best Okonomiyaki in the land, if far too mannish for her own beauteous self. As for the foul sorcerer," The boy's face twisted into an angry scowl. "He has taken my loves from me and twisted even the most innocent of women to his own foul ends. He is the most evil of men, worthy of only a swift death, but he continues to avoid my righteous blade!"

Akira began to smile. "Perhaps we can help each other." He said, walking on and beckoning for the boy to follow.

END.

Hmm, what's goin on with Kasumi? And I think Mr. Kuonji just may regret his meeting of a certain young Kendoist. :D

Well, 'till next chapter, don't forget to review!


	25. Chapter 25, To be a master

Note: No, this is NOT a Pokemon Cameo, so you don't have to run in fear. That's just the most appropriate title, IMHO.

Also, I've finished Xanth 28, which is the final book of the series that I can currently get my hands on. I think the series shouldn't distract me anymore. I think.

Chapter 25, To be a master.

Nabiki Tendo stretched, cracking her back. She'd spent the past two hours balancing the family's budget, but it was finally looking like she could make it through the month. Truthfully, she'd done this twice by this point, but working with money was distracting to her, and she currently needed a distraction. A day ago, Nodoka had called to ask where Kasumi was living, and she'd managed to get the woman to admit that Kasumi had been attacked by some sort of demon. According to Ranma, who had been there to fight the monster, her older sister was fine now, but even so she was worried. Closing her ledger, she slid back from her desk and stood. "Time to scrounge for something to eat." She muttered, looking warily into the hallway.

Ever since Kasumi had left, the Tendo house had been a much harder place to live in. Akane had tried, and actually succeeded reasonably well, to keep the place clean but the fathers were worse than useless, and none of them knew how to cook very well. Tramping down the stairs and past Genma and Soun's perpetual Shogi game, she smiled. The elder, or rather only, Saotome was still immobile, and her father couldn't do anything on his own if his life depended on it so Ranma and Akane would be left alone by them for the next few weeks, at least. Even when the two were functional again, Nabiki wouldn't be the one to tell them where to find Ranma, even if she did know. She at least owed the boy that much, especially after he apparently helped Kasumi during the demon attack.

Entering the kitchen, the middle Tendo was surprised to see two plates set out. One was for her and the other was for Akane, who was busy at the stove. "It's curry." The younger sister said, looking over her shoulder with a slight smile.

Nabiki smiled, sliding into her seat. She was getting tired of curry, but as unbelievable as it seemed, Akane was a better cook than she was and home made curry was cheaper than take out. Lifting a bite to her mouth, she bit into it cautiously, eyeing a cup of water next to her. Sometimes Akane still overloaded the spices. "Hey, you've gotten better!" She said, after chewing and swallowing the food.

"Thanks." Akane said, blushing, before seeming to remember something. "Oh, we got a letter from Kasumi. I thought I'd wait until you got down to read it."

Nabiki's eyebrow rose slightly, though she wanted to jump out of her seat and run to read the note immediately. She was surprised that Akane had managed to resist doing that already, but her younger sister had seemed to exhibit a surprising level of maturity since Ranma left. She wasn't sure that was a good thing, however, as she was starting to remind her of how Kasumi had once acted. "So let's take a look at the letter." She said, finally.

Akane nodded, reaching into the apron she had taken to wearing and withdrawing a large yellow envelope. "It's a little big." She commented, as she laid it on the table.

Nabiki shrugged, slitting the envelope open with a convenient knife and sliding out the first piece of paper. It was a check, made out to Nabiki for about 15,000 yen. It wasn't much, but she guessed it had to be Kasumi's entire paycheck after room and board. Akane frowned. "What's this for?"

Nabiki shrugged. "I don't know, but we can use it." She said, taking the slip of paper and sticking it into a pocket. Akane was about to object, but was cut off by a glare from her sister. "We need this to help pay for food, and Kasumi knows that." She said, sharply. As Akane reluctantly nodded, Nabiki withdrew another piece of paper. This appeared to be the actual letter. Unfolding it, she began to read.

"Hi, everyone. This is Kasumi. How are you? I got to Juuban safely, and the Furuhatas have been very nice. The check I sent you was the extra money they insisted on paying me after my room and board, but I really don't need it so I thought you could use it. School is nice, and I even ran into Tofu-sensei there. Isn't that great?

The teachers say I'm one of their best students. I'm sure they're just being nice, though.

I saw Kuno-san here a while ago. He was looking for Ranma-kun, but he grabbed my friend Unazuki-chan by mistake. He really shouldn't do things like that, and Modoki-san, Unazuki-chan's older brother, filed a police report, but they haven't found him yet.

Oh, I also met Ranma-kun. He's doing well, and even going to my school. A monster attacked the school today, but Ranma-kun and one of the sailor Senshi fought it off. Oh, by the way, the piece of paper with the name on it is an autograph for Nabiki's Senshi item collection. I hope you like it, sister. There's also a list of recipes from the Crown fruit parlor for you to try, Akane-chan. Remember to read them carefully. Say hello to Daddy and Mr. Saotome for me, all right?

It's getting late, so I'm going to bed. I'll write to you again soon.

Love, Kasumi."

When Nabiki stopped reading the letter, the two sisters sat silent for a few seconds. Curious, she reached into the envelope and withdrew a ragged half sheet of what looked like a biology assignment. On the blank side, there was a person's signature, though instead of a name it said "Sailor Neptune." "Hmm, never heard of that Senshi before." She muttered, though she thought there should be soldiers for the outer planets as well as the inners, so it made sense.

"So Kasumi's happy there." Akane said, jolting her sister out of her random thoughts.

"Yeah, I guess." Nabiki responded, before noticing that Akane had tears in her eyes. "Something wrong, sis?"

"They're all going away, aren't they?" Akane whispered, before standing from the table, her meal only half eaten, and turning to the counter to clean up the meal's refuse.

Nabiki frowned, trying to puzzle out precisely what that meant while looking at Kasumi. Wait, that wasn't Kasumi, it was Akane. The two looked different enough that she shouldn't have confused them, but Akane was wearing an apron and house dress, cleaning up the kitchen like Kasumi always used to.

That's when it hit her. When their mother died, Kasumi had promised to take care of the house for her and within a few weeks she'd started trying to do the chores and cooking, even if she'd been bad at it at the time. Within a few years, she'd been walking around with that vacant smile on her face, acting like the perfect housewife.

Was Akane doing the same thing now? Would she eventually just stand there, smiling and not particularly caring what was going on? And for what, their father? He had been out of it ever since their mother's death as well, but he'd been completely useless. She'd be gone to college by next year. She should have gone this year, but had used her own college fund to help Kasumi's effort. Looking back up at the softly humming blue-black haired girl who was cleaning the room, Nabiki made a promise to herself. She wouldn't let Akane give up her life the way Kasumi had, and she wouldn't go down either. Finishing off her food, she stood and left the room, throwing a quick "Thank you" over her shoulder to Akane.

As she passed the living room, she glared harshly at it's residents.

"Is something wrong, Nabiki-chan?" Soun asked, noticing the look.

"Nothing." She muttered, stomping upstairs and to her room. She had to make a few calls. It had taken the departure of Ranma and Kasumi for her to realize that the Tendo family was half way dead, but she wouldn't let it continue any longer.

HR.

"I don't know about this, Minako-san." Konatsu said, uneasily, from the interior of a changing room.

"Come on, Konatsu-chan, Let us see!" The blonde Senshi said, happily. From next to her, Rei groaned.

"Minako, Maybe we should give up on this. It's been two hours." The Miko said. The three of them, Her, Konatsu and Minako, had been in the Juuban shopping center trying to pick out an outfit for the Ninja for a while now. The worst part was that Rei didn't even want to be here, but Minako insisted.

"Nah, just this one last outfit. Come on out, Konatsu!" Minako replied, banging on the door.

"But how am I going to pay for it? I don't have any money." Konatsu objected, still not immerging.

"Rei's grandfather gave me some, now come… OUT!" Minako said, pulling on the door handle. Suddenly, the door jerked open. It hadn't been locked. The blonde lost her balance, falling backwards and trying to catch herself on Rei's arm. This brought the black haired girl down as well, and the two ended up in a tangle of arms and legs.

"Get… off of me." Rei growled, pushing Minako's face away from her own. She was well past annoyance, at this point. The blonde, however, was unresponsive. "What's wrong?" She continued, before looking towards the place where she'd pushed Minako's head.

Konatsu was standing there, blushing a little and fidgeting. His ponytail had been let down to the bottom of his head and was tied more loosely. It was still a bit long for a guy, but didn't look quite as odd. He wore a grey, short sleeved shirt and black jeans. It didn't precisely look incredible, but it was now obvious that he was a boy rather than a girl, especially since his make-up had been washed off and the pepper bombs, one of which Minako had accidentally detonated, were removed from his shirt.

"You look cuuuute!" The blonde squealed, jumping up, somehow disentangling herself from Rei in the process, and rushing over to adjust some parts of the clothing.

"I still do not see the need for this, Minako-san." Konatsu said, uncertainly. "I feel silly."

"You look great, Konatsu-kun. Doesn't he, Rei?" Minako asked, looking at her friend, who was still sprawled on the ground.

"Yeah, he looks okay." Rei said, noncommittally, as she got to her feet. "Now can we go?"

"Yeah, I think this is good." Minako said, leading Konatsu away from the room. "As for why we need to do this, well you said that Ukyo compared you to this Tsubasa guy, who was nothing like you aside from the fact that he dressed as a girl. The way I see it, if you dress in boy's clothes, she could get over that problem."

"I don't know about this, Minako-san." Konatsu said, reaching down to tug at a fold of his Kimono, before remembering that he wasn't wearing it.

"Ah, trust me." Minako said, smiling happily as she lead the boy to the cash register.

HR.

Mousse ran through the streets of the Minato ward, looking for the address that Ranma had given him. Cologne had ordered him to find the other martial artist as quickly as he could, and he was doing so. Rounding a corner, he barreled headlong into the chest of a blonde in a male school uniform.

"Hey duck boy, what exactly are you doing?" Came a slightly angry voice, from next to the person Mousse had landed on.

Adjusting his glasses, the blind boy quickly realized that the person he had run into was Haruka. Looking over to where the voice had come from, he saw Ranma. "Ranma, I need to talk to you!" He said, hurriedly.

"You mind getting off of me first?" Haruka asked, glaring up at him.

"Oh, yeah." Mousse said, scrambling up and helping the blonde to her feet. "Cologne wants you to come to the restaurant as soon as possible, Ranma."

"Why, what's up?" Ranma asked, looking confused.

"She said that Happosai wants to talk to you, and you should come as quickly as possible because…" Mousse started, before being interrupted.

"What does the ol' perv want now?" Ranma asked, annoyed.

"Ranma, I normally dislike the old man as much as you do, especially with how many times he's glomped Shampoo over the years, but I think this is important." Mousse replied, with an unusual amount of seriousness.

Ranma frowned. "I dunno about this." He muttered, looking over at Haruka.

"Well, we don't have anything else to do today, so we may as well." Haruka shrugged. The two had just gotten out of class, and were headed back home when Mousse had run headlong into her.

"So we gotta get there as fast as we can?" Ranma asked, looking at the blind boy and sighing.

"Well, Happosai only asked for you." Mousse started, but Haruka interrupted.

"Oh, I'm going." She said, vehemently. Ranma just shrugged, grabbing Haruka around the waist and transferring her into his arms as he jumped to the roof.

"Hey, don't do that without warning me!" She yelled, annoyed.

Ranma apologized, but didn't look too apologetic as he sped towards the restaurant.

HR.

About five minutes later, Ranma and Haruka burst into the Peeking duck. As she saw the closed sign, Haruka briefly wondered how Mousse and Cologne managed to keep the rent paid with the place closed so often. Then again, it was possible that it had just been closed for the day a while ago, but it was odd that it had been that way almost every time she'd been there.

"Oh, Ranma. It's a good thing you're here." Cologne said, moving from the back of the room towards the front. Haruka's eyes widened as she saw the old woman. She had only seen her a couple of times, but she was definitely looking worse now than she had then. Her eyes were rimmed with the black circles that represented lack of sleep, and she wasn't too steady on her feet.

"You okay, ol ghoul?" Ranma asked, giving voice to Haruka's own question.

"I'm fine, Ranma." The woman said, but It was obvious that she was lying. "I just over-exerted my chi reserves recently. Now, I suggest you go and talk to Happi." she continued, before sagging off of her cane and onto a chair.

"What's goin on here? Why're ya and Mousse so determined ta get me to talk to the ol' perv?" Ranma asked, concerned.

"Happi will tell you, now go." Cologne replied, before falling asleep in her seat.

"Go on in, I'll take care of the old lady." Haruka said, looking uncertainly at Cologne. Ranma looked back and forth as well, before proceeding into Happosai's back room.

HR.

As Ranma entered the room where Happosai was laying, the first thing he noticed was the occupant, laying on a bed in the middle. He'd looked beaten up the first time he'd seen him, but this time it was about twice as bad. His body seemed drained of energy, the way Kasumi's had when her energy crystal had been stolen. The difference was that he didn't have any residual life flowing through him. There was only a faint flicker of Chi visible in his body, and it was fading. "What the hell happened ta you?" He blurted, causing the old man's head to slowly turn and face him.

"You really know how to make an old man feel good, Ranma." He said, sarcastically.

"Seriously, old man. What's happenin here?" Ranma snapped.

"I'm dieing, Isn't it obvious?" Happosai said, with a hollow chuckle. "Looks like the Kami finally got their hands on me."

"Cut the crap, old man. Yer gunna be around to annoy me when I'm about to die!" Ranma said, sharply. He wondered precisely what made him react like that, but shrugged it off.

"My boy, listen. I use the life energy of young women to keep myself alive, and I can't do that anymore, since every girl I grab blasts me off. You saw what happened when you kept me from draining for a couple of days, imagine how much worse it would get after over a week?"

"But I thought the ol' ghoul was givin you Chi?" Ranma replied, briefly recalling how the man had been when he couldn't get energy. "And besides, ya spent ten years in a cave without dieing before, what about then?"

"Cologne was giving me energy, but she has almost as little as I do. If I kept allowing her to give me her life force, she would have killed herself within a few days." The old man chuckled a little. "I may be a grade A pervert, but I'm not a murderer, Ranma. As for the ten years in the cave…" He shrugged." It was a state of hibernation. I could use it now, but considering how low my energy level is I'd never wake up anyways."

"Okay, so let's say yer dieing. Why'd ya call me here?" Ranma asked, wondering why the idea of the old freak croaking bothered him so much.

Happosai sighed, seeming to relax even further into the bed before twitching and forcing himself to look Ranma in the eye. "I know I haven't been the best instructor of the anything goes martial arts, but I am the school's grand master, and it's my only positive legacy. I want you to have it."

"Huh?" Ranma asked, completely shocked.

"I only have three fully trained students. They're you, Genma and Soun. Tell me which of them you'd chose to give the school to if you had a choice? Those two are idiots." Happi said, before reaching into his gi. Pulling out a small piece of paper, he held it out to Ranma in a shaking hand. "Here. The family name's blank so you can put in whatever you want when you decide on one. You're not ready for this, but I have no choice. Ranma, you are the grand master of the founding school of the anything goes martial arts. I charge you to learn the techniques that you feel useful from my scrolls, and to learn to teach and pass it on."

"But why…" Ranma said, still shocked. This really didn't seem to be something that Happosai would do.

"I told you, I have no choice, and I know that if I get your personal promise on the matter, you'll do your best to fulfill it. Now tell me, do you accept?" The old man said, as his eyes began to droop slowly.

Right before Happosai's eyes closed, Ranma spoke. "Yeah… I'll do my best ta continue the school." The old man's face broke into a smile, as his eyes finished closing and his chest ceased it's shallow rising and falling. Ranma reached his hand over and felt the small man's wrist, noting that there was no beat there, before standing and walking out of the room quietly.

HR.

Haruka looked up from her bowl of ramen, fetched by Mousse after he'd finally gotten back, when she heard the door to the back of the restaurant opening. Ranma walked out, holding a piece of paper a little larger than his palm, and with his face set in a grim expression.

Cologne, who had woken up when Mousse entered, looked over to see the pigtailed martial artist exit the room. She surveyed him for about half a second, before speaking. "Is he…?" She asked, trailing off at the end.

Ranma nodded Slightly.

"What's going on?" Haruka demanded, as she walked over to join Ranma. Looking over his shoulder to read the small piece of paper in his hand, her eyes widened. It said "Founding school of anything goes martial arts Grand Master: Ranma," and had what looked like two other people's signatures on the bottom. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yeah," Ranma responded. "It's a license to practice, teach and modify my school of martial arts."

Given the content of the paper, Haruka was wondering why Ranma wasn't incredibly happy, before remembering the exchange when he'd first left Happosai's room. "We should probably get going." She said, lamely, trying to break the awkward silence.

"Yeah." Ranma said, before heading to the door. "I'll see you guys next weekend for my spar with Mousse, all right?"

Mousse nodded, looking slightly confused. Cologne didn't respond.

HR.

On their way home, Ranma spent half of his time looking down at the certificate that Happosai had given him. Just a couple of days before, he'd been given the ability to fight youma by turning into a magical girl, and really hadn't had much chance to think about it yet. Now he'd suddenly become the grand master of anything goes, and had promised that he'd do his best to keep the school alive.

Haruka was looking at him concernedly, but she was keeping quiet, probably because she only vaguely knew what was going on. He really wished he could do the same thing sometimes, rather than just jumping in. It'd probably save a lot of grief.

As Ranma glanced at Haruka again, he noticed her eyes widening. Whipping his head around to where she was looking, his train of thought shattered into a thousand pieces.

HR.

Akira gritted his teeth as his traveling companion burst into another poetic stream of nonsense. This Kuno boy may have wanted to get rid of Saotome as well, but he was quite possibly the most annoying human being on the face of the earth.

Turning his mind away from his annoying companion, Mr. Kuonji looked down the street the two were currently on. His eyes caught on a flash of reddish brown, and he focused on the source of color. It was an older woman in a formal Kimono and the color he'd seen was her hair. As he looked at her, his eyes widened. He recognized her, that was the Saotome boy's mother. Perhaps she would know where her son was, but he doubted that she would cooperate with him, especially considering Ukyo's recent attack on her son. "Boy, stay here for the moment." He muttered, preparing a throwing spatula and walking towards the woman.

HR.

Nodoka walked down the shopping street, her left arm supporting several bags of groceries. Setsuna had had to start her job this week and Ranma and Haruka were at school, so she'd decided to make some use of her rather boring afternoon to pick up some food that they were low on.

Just before she was about to turn into another store, a man walked up next to her and grabbed her right hand. "Hmm, is there something wrong?" She asked, turning towards the man. He looked familiar, but that wasn't what caught her attention. He had what looked like a spatula in his other hand, and it's edge looked sharp.

"Hello, Nodoka-san." The man said, casually. "Could you please lead me to the house where your son is living? She blinked. What in the world was going on here? As she hesitated, the man's hand that held the sharpened spatula twitched marginally. "I should warn you that I can land this in your throat in seconds with very little effort." The man remarked, twitching the blade again.

The auburn haired woman gulped, before nodding slowly. Her skills with a bokuto were a joke, and she carried the wooden weapon mostly for show. Plus, if whoever this was wanted to see Ranma, she was sure that he would get what he deserved soon enough. "I'd be happy to lead you to Ranma, but you didn't have to threaten me." She said, coolly, before starting to head towards Setsuna's house.

END.

Oh crap, another cliffie.

Since I know someone will object to this, Happi didn't give Ranma the school because he WANTED to, he did it because Ranma was the lesser of several evils. Note that he, himself, said that Ranma wasn't really ready for it.

Also, no. Akane's not turning into another Kasumi, her disposition is different. She'd end up kinda similar though… if she didn't have a nervous breakdown first and murder everyone.

Oh, and could you please save your "Ding dong the freak is dead" remarks for outside of reviews? Writing a character death, even that of Happi, isn't a pleasant thing for an author to do, especially if said character isn't pure evil, which this Happi isn't.


	26. Chapter 26, I can’t think of a name

Hi folks. Wow, last chapter's reception was a bit mixed. Oh, and a note. Please leave contact info if your review has a question or longer comment. Anons without contact info anger me, and one of these days I'm going to deeply apologize to the Anons who give me info, and turn the Anon reviews off.

In other news, I'm afraid this late update will probably be followed with very few more. I'm leaving for a trip in about five days, then going for a month long summer training course after that. On the plus side, I'm getting a guide dog! Yay!

Chapter 26, I can't think of a name.s

Mr. Tenoh hummed to himself as he drove the small yellow sports car down the streets of the Minato ward. It was Haruka's car, which she hadn't been able to take with her when she'd left home on her bike, and he thought that he may as well deliver it while he came for his current visit.

As he pulled up to Setsuna's house, the man noticed Ranma's mother, Nodoka, standing next to a black haired man. She looked slightly uneasy. As he opened the door and stepped out, he began to see why. The man next to her had something small and metallic held against one of her arms, right around the wrist area. It was a strange place to hold a deadly weapon, but probably much less conspicuous than a knife to the neck would be.

"Where is he?" The man barked, seeming not to have noticed the large brown haired man's approach.

"I don't know." The woman admitted, honestly. "He said that he was going to see someone for a sparring match before I left." To her credit, Nodoka didn't seem to be ruffled, her speech as calm as a windless lake.

"Whoever you're looking for, I suggest you let this woman go." Mr. Tenoh said, casually. He was reaching into his pocket for a cellular phone with which to call the police as he said this. As the small electronic device cleared the pocket, something small and metal flew through the air and knocked it from his hand.

Mr. Tenoh looked to the ground in bemusement, seeing his phone pinned there by a gleaming … spatula.

"Kuno-san." The man, who had somehow managed to produce another of his micro-spatulas and return to his original position before Haruka's father could blink, commanded, in annoyance. "Please get him out of here."

"Kuonji-san, this doth not appear to be the path to true vengeance on Saotome. First we assault an honorable seeming woman and then those who seek to free her?" Came a voice, from a man in a blue and black Kendo outfit, who had been standing several feet away and seemingly attempting to ignore the proceedings to the best of his ability up until this point.

"Kuonji-san?" Nodoka and Mr. Tenoh said, simultaneously. It was then that the woman remembered where she'd seen this man before. He had, at one time, come to find her husband and son in order to make them pay off a debt. She'd heard from Ukyo afterwards of what he'd ordered her to do, but she hadn't thought he'd stooped this low.

Mr. Tenoh, on the other hand, only knew Kuonji Akira as one of the many people who's daughter had been engaged to Saotome Ranma.

"You want to take revenge on Saotome for your 'two loves,' don't you?" Akira said, seemingly ignoring the twin outbursts.

"Yes, I do, but surely there is some other way than to assault such people as these. Even the mother of the rogue himself is a woman, and I do not even know this man." The boy complained, but it seemed that the idea of taking vengeance on Ranma was appealing to him, as he took a position across from Mr. Tenoh, his bokken held up in a guarding stance.

Tenoh responded in kind, taking up a loose martial arts stance. He'd taken a few lessons when Haruka had begun to have an interest in fighting, and had continued after she had out-paced him since it was good exercise, but the boy before him looked like a trained practitioner of his art, and therefore he had no illusions of being capable of beating him.

It was at that moment that two voices rang out at once, both asking "What's going on here?"

HR.

Haruka and Ranma looked on in a highly confused state, as they saw the scene in front of their home. There were two people standing there, one holding a wooden sword on Haruka's father, and the other standing unusually close to Nodoka, one arm hidden behind her sleeve.

"What's going on here?" The two of them asked, though Ranma was looking at the swordsman in noticeable annoyance. "Kuno, why're ya threatening a non-combatant with a sword?" He continued, cracking his knuckles.

"Kuno?" Haruka asked, her eyes widening as she recalled the insane Kendoist from the stories Ranma had told of his previous life in Nerima. She started forward automatically, Ranma following and then overtaking her.

"Stop there, Saotome!" The man who was standing next to Nodoka demanded, as he shifted his grip on her to bring a blade to her throat. "If you don't, your mother will pay."

The pigtailed martial artist came to a screeching halt as the blade gleamed, as did Haruka. 'Mother?' Was her only thought as the male martial artist next to her narrowed his eyes and took a defensive stance. "Who the hell are ya and what do ya want?" He growled.

"My name is Akira Kuonji." The man intoned, angrily. "I demand that you repay my clan for the trouble and dishonor you've caused, by either marriage to my daughter or death. By this point I'd prefer the second."

"Kuonji, you're Ukyo's pop." Ranma replied, surprised. "I left the Saotome family and all those promises a while ago, now let her go. It ain't very honorable to hold hostages, y'know." This last was said with a noticeable hint of annoyance in his voice.

"You dare lecture me on honor!" Akira snapped back, his hand trembling at Nodoka's neck, causing the previously unflinching woman to wince. "You, who ran away from his family and his duty? You, who single handedly ruined my child's life?"

Haruka and her father both looked at the man in astonishment. "The way I heard it, his father promised him to your daughter after previously telling you that Ranma was engaged to another girl." Haruka drawled. "Sounds more like you were being an idiot."

"It was a matter of honor!" The old man said, sounding somewhat as if he was trying to convince himself of this fact as he said it."

"Yes, yours and Mr. Saotome's, especially after Ranma-san left his clan." Mr. Tenoh responded, smoothly.

"If the boy thinks that running away from his problems is going to save him from punishment, he will be disappointed." Kuonji growled, self-righteously.

This was the exact wrong thing to say to Ranma right at that moment. His mother was being threatened by a man who'd questioned the ONLY way he could see of getting out of the Nerima mess without causing massive amounts of damage to other people's lives, on the day when he'd just witnessed the master of his school's death. On top of that, since the old man had made him promise to carry on the school, he would probably have to head back to the Tendo place to pick up the secret technique scrolls at some point, and see Akane and Nabiki again. Coupled with several other factors, including a certain Henshin pen that he could feel sitting in his shirt pocket, what he did next could be entirely explained. He exploded in a mass of bright battle aura, almost disappearing as he flew across the distance between himself and Mr. Kuonji.

Later, Haruka would reflect that the action looked like something out of a cheesy fighting anime, as Ranma's glowing fist made contact with Akira's stomach, sending him flying away from Nodoka at great speed. His spatula blade had only left a shallow cut along the side of the woman's neck as he flew past.

Ranma wasn't very surprised when Mr. Kuonji got up from the rubble of the wall he'd smashed into, though from the gasps behind him, at least Haruka, Nodoka and Haruka's father were. The blow he'd landed had probably broken at least one of the man's ribs, but wouldn't have completely knocked out anyone but Akane or maybe Kuno. Noting this, he ran at his target as the older man drew a large combat spatula from a holder on his back.

Meanwhile, Tatewaki Kuno stood on the sidelines, conflicted. He had wanted to get vengeance against Saotome Ranma, that was the truth… but the one he had followed in an attempt to get it had turned out to be acting less than honorably. Still, he was a samurai of the house of Kuno, and had agreed to help the man. With some misgivings, he stepped forward to join in the fight and help his new ally, only to be stopped by someone else stepping in front of him. He was blonde, a few inches shorter than Kuno himself, and rather effeminate. Distantly, the blue thunder recalled that the man had been accompanying Saotome when he'd arrived. "Why do you impede my way, nave?" He demanded, pompously.

"Because it looks like you're planning on interfering in that fight." The man said, pointing over his own shoulder to the continuing battle between Ranma and Mr. Kuonji. Truthfully, Haruka wanted to interfere as well, but she wasn't sure which side to do so on, given that Ranma had looked like he wanted to kill right before he'd started running.

"If the seekest to obstruct the blue thunder in giving aid to an ally, you are an enemy and must be struck down. I attack!" Kuno shouted, raising his sword.

Nodoka and Mr. Tenoh just stood there, looking on in a large amount of confusion mixed with concern.

HR.

About a minute later, Ranma's battle with Mr. Kuonji was drawing to a definitive close. The older man had been good. Good enough to recover from a very powerful chi powered attack, at the very least, but ever since that first off-guard blow, he'd been at a disadvantage, and he wasn't really good enough to beat Ranma in a fight even at top strength. At the moment, he was laying on the ground, his spatula embedded in a sidewalk about five feet away.

Haruka had managed to get a lucky shot on Kuno as he was posturing in the middle of the fight, and was heading towards Ranma. Mr. Tenoh had headed for Haruka's car and was using a phone inside to call for the authorities, and Nodoka had done what most Nerimans knew to do when a battle started. She'd headed for cover inside of the house. It wasn't that she was cowardly, or that she didn't care about Ranma or the others. She simply knew that she was more of a hurt than a help in a fight and had gotten herself out of the way as quickly as possible.

As Ranma stalked up to Mr. Kuonji after the blow that had sent him and his battle spatula in two drastically different directions, he'd calmed down a little bit. His mind was beginning to stop showing him constant images of Ukyo attacking Haruka and tearfully admitting that it was her father's orders that had made her do it, or the bastard's smug face as he held his mother hostage. Even so, the fact remained that he was incredibly angry at the moment. Ranma's anger was normally a very transient thing. A couple of moments of exasperated yelling would get it out of his system, and he'd be back to normal within about five minutes. Unfortunately, lately that wasn't happening and he still had a great deal of it to work off.

The pigtailed martial artist stood above Mr. Kuonji, who was trying to struggle his way to his feet. "Ya gunna give up now?" He growled, his aura rapidly heading for the lowest temperatures he could manage, attempting to use the soul of ice to calm himself down.

The man just looked up at the pigtailed boy, glairing, and then shook his head, once, slowly. He'd made his daughter live most of her life as a man, trained her to be a top assassin in his style, and sent her out to kill the ones who'd dishonored the family. Now that she'd failed, he was all that was left, and he would not yield.

Ranma acted within seconds, hooking a foot under the man's torso as he lay on all fours, and nudging him so he landed on his back on the ground. "Goodbye." He mumbled, his right hand whipping down at high speed.

All of this had taken only a few seconds, and Haruka found herself speeding up drastically in her run towards Ranma as she realized what he was going to do. The elder Kuonji may have been a bastard, but he didn't deserve to die, and she didn't want to think of what Ranma'd do to himself if he killed him. Fortunately, this all became a moot issue, as Ranma diverted his hand at the last second, stirring up a huge mass of dust as it struck the ground and created a small crater.

"What… What did I just try to do?" Ranma whispered, the cooling flame of his aura seeming to gutter out as if a bucket of water were thrown over it. "I… just tried to kill someone. I almost…" His hand was shaking now.

"Ranma?" Haruka said, unsure of what to do. The pigtailed martial artist didn't respond, merely straightening to his full height and jumping to a nearby roof.

"Ranma, where the heck are you going?!" She yelled, trying to run to follow only to lose track of the boy's form.

HR.

At the Crown Fruit Parlor, Kasumi Tendo smiled happily as she set a plate down at a table. Her day was going rather well. Although she'd had to stay home from the academy for the past few days on the order of it's medical staff, due to 'the pipe explosion' that had knocked her out, she had been keeping busy. Earlier that day, Aunty Nodoka had stopped by to check up on her, apparently being told about the attack by Ranma, and the two had had an enjoyable chat.

As she moved back to the kitchen to take a boiling pot off of the stove, she stopped dead, her face taking on a strange expression.

"Are you all right, Kasumi-chan?" Unazuki asked, walking up to the older girl and poking her on the shoulder.

"He's so sad… and angry… why?" Kasumi commented, distantly.

"What?" Unazuki responded, confused.

The older girl shook her head. "I… It's nothing, Unazuki-chan. Just a daydream." She said, cheerfully, though her face looked mildly troubled.

HR.

Setsuna sighed as she teleported into her bedroom, flicking her business heals into a corner. "Note to self, don't blow off work for two weeks unless you plan on quitting the job." She muttered. She'd needed to make Haruka and Ranma comfortable as part of her revised plan to revive the outer Senshi, but the backlog of students requesting course consultations or who'd been ordered to see the councilor due to bad behavior had annoyed her quite a bit.

As she glanced out the window, the several millennia old woman's eyes widened slightly, and she let out an old silver millennium curse that would have had queen serenity banish her from the court for a week if she had heard it used. The front lawn was totaled, and there appeared to be a large man with an even larger spatula sprawled out in the middle of it and looking as if he'd been through a meat grinder. She was about to go and call the police, when she saw several cars pull up. Nodding, as everything seemed to be taken care of for the moment, she materialized her staff and teleported to the time gates.

Running the gates through a search that involved following everyone in the household, aside from Ranma, of course, through the day eventually resulted in learning most of what had happened. Silently, she resolved to make sure that Mr. Kuonji got put through a hard time in prison. She was beginning to think of Nodoka as a friend. As the record of events closed on the present, and she saw Ranma's almost-deathblow against Kuonji and subsequent fleeing into the night, she rolled her eyes to the top of the gate chamber.

She had originally been hoping that she could clear away Ranma's recruitment into the Senshi team in a week, in order to make way for the slightly harder task of convincing Haruka. Without the memories of Uranus telling her that the Senshi uniform was a respected and powerful symbol, the girl would probably, ironically, make more of a fuss about it than Ranma was.

Now, however, the young martial artist was going through a whole new set of problems. Sighing again, the dark green haired Senshi began the laborious task of tracking an almost untraceable martial artist, by eye, through the time gates.

When she'd finally found him, sitting atop a small office building in Juuban, she began to teleport, only to stop. It would probably be a bad idea for her to appear as Setsuna right in the middle of a roof that she had no way of getting onto. Holding up her henshin pen, she called "Pluto planet power, makeup!" before teleporting away, now in Senshi uniform.

HR.

Ranma sat on the roof, brooding. He'd been doing so for a good couple hours, by this point. He'd already been having trouble with the idea that his old life from Nerima was slowly and surely coming to find him, but now, he wasn't even sure if he could trust his own actions anymore. He'd known that killing Saffron had been the only way to save Akane. He hadn't really thought about it since, but after that he'd turned on Ukyo in anger and come inches away from crushing her father's skull, just because he let his temper get away from him. It wasn't like him at all… was it? As he thought this last, the young martial artist heard the crunching sound of feet hitting the roof's cement right behind him. "Who's there?" He asked, not bothering to remove his gaze from the night sky.

"It's Sailor Pluto." Came the calm voice, causing Ranma to twitch in surprise before turning to see the mini-skirt clad Senshi. "I ain't in the mood to hear a recruiting speech right now, Pluto." He snapped, looking away again.

"That's fortunate, because I'm not in the mood to give one." She said, before sitting on the edge of the roof where he was, smoothly tucking her legs under her body. "I saw what happened earlier. It's not entirely your fault, you know."

Ranma's head shot up, and he found himself looking the older woman straight in the disconcertingly red eyes. "Why are you getting involved in this?" He finally asked, suspiciously.

"You are a Senshi." She said, truthfully. Like a lot of what she said, it wasn't complete truth, but it was truth.

"I haven't agreed 'ta join your group." Ranma shot back, annoyed.

"It doesn't matter." Pluto said, rubbing one temple. "When you were born, you became Neptune. Whether you choose to wield the power and fight as a Senshi isn't the point, though I would like you to take your role again, as we need all of the Senshi for future battles. Regardless of whether you join or not, though, your past self was… a friend of mine, and I owe it to her to try and help you."

Ranma nodded slightly. He had more questions about that, but he was letting himself get distracted from the issue at hand. "What'd ya mean it wasn't my fault? I tried 'ta kill a guy 'cuz I was angry. That's worse than anything Ryoga or the others've done."

"I told you it was 'mostly' not your fault." Pluto said, mentally snorting. Could the boy really be stupid enough to think that what he'd done was worse than some of the things that had gone on in Nerima? "The fact is, trying to get revenge on someone who was blackmailing you and renting you out to sports teams for weeks by springing out of a hedge maze yelling 'I love you' kind of tells me that you suppress more of your anger than is really healthy."

"Hey, how'd ya know about…" Ranma started, before being cut off.

"Bought the file." Pluto replied, holding up a folder full of papers.

Ranma's eyes twitched. "Nabiki." He muttered, shaking his head and sighing. "Shoulda known. So what do I do 'bout it, then?" He finally asked, looking away from Pluto and out to the city.

"I would get a good lawyer." She replied, deadpan.

"Not Nabiki, the other thing." Ranma shot back, annoyed.

"Well, just stop forgiving everyone for absolutely everything they do. It's not good to get angry all the time, either, but if someone does something like what Nabiki was doing, I'd seriously get that lawyer." Pluto sighed. She felt like she was talking to one of her students. Then, getting an idea, she smirked. "Of course, you could always join the Senshi. Monster bashing is always therapeutic."

"Hey, what?" Ranma shot back, spinning to see that Pluto had vanished. Shrugging, he jumped down from the building. He still had a lot to think about, but Haruka and Nodoka were probably worried about him after he'd taken off for so long.

END.

Ah, the beating of Kuonji. He's not dead, just very badly battered and probably in jail for several years, and that's before Setsuna gets to him. Everyone else's reactions to this chapter's one REALLY long scene, hopefully next chapter… Whenever that comes out.

PS: This feels a little… off. Not sure how, but I hope you like it in spite of that. R&R, folks!


	27. Chapter 27, Fathers, Mothers and

Hi people! Here we are with a new chapter, at long last. Y'know, last chapter I complained about no contact info in anon reviews. This chapter, it seems someone wrote a review that didn't even have a NAME attached. What, is this person trying to spite me or something?

Ah well, enough about that. On with the show!

Chapter 27, Fathers, Mothers and Children.

Tatewaki Kuno stared at the scene as several police officers milled about the house where Mr. Kuonji had fought Saotome an hour ago. He was extraordinarily confused. This confusion had started when, while fighting the nave who'd dared to interfere in his assistance of an ally, he'd slashed the other opponent's shirt open to reveal a tightly bound, but definitely female chest. Unlike the obviously sorcery caused switches between Saotome and his pigtailed goddess, it was obvious that this was the same person.

In the middle of his apology to the ensorcelled maiden for attacking her, she'd dropped him with a hard punch to the gut and a chop to the back of the neck. In the midst of his fall to the ground, he had begun to think, and those thoughts swirled around his mind during the whole time when he was unconscious. He had been incorrect in identification of his pigtailed goddess earlier that week. The saintly Kasumi Tendo had informed him of his error, and therefore it must be true.

Perhaps, then, though it galled him to admit it, he had been incorrect in chasing Saotome. What if the sorcerer had learned from his previous thrashing at the hands of the mighty blue thunder, and was trying to repent in a new place?

It was as Tatewaki was waking up that his confusion and uncertainty reached it's peak. The woman whom Kuonji-san had identified as Saotome's mother was reporting a truly heinous list of crimes. Someone had apparently been stalking her daughter, forcing their affections upon her and not accepting her denials of affection. This person had also apparently attacked her son when he tried to defend his sister's honor. Whoever this was, Tatewaki would smite them verily. Strange, though. He didn't know that Saotome had a sister.

As he sprang to his feet to declare that he would punish the foul one who would dare treat a girl in the fashion that the Saotome woman had claimed her daughter had been treated, his shock and confusion became complete by her mentioning that he would be hard pressed to punish himself.

Now, here he was, standing with his hands cuffed behind his back, as the police took statements and evidence from the area. The girl he had been fighting was over in one corner, talking to the brown haired man who he'd learned was her father, while Mrs. Saotome was getting the small gash on her neck looked at by one of the paramedics, who had been spared from the task of looking after Kuonji-san.

"Mr. Kuno, please come with me." One of the officers of the law stated, leading Tatewaki by the shoulder to the back of a police car. Tatewaki did not resist. After all, he needed time and a place to think, and even a prison cell was better than here at the moment.

HR.

"No." Haruka said, sounding as if she'd said this several times before.

"Haruka, I understand that you care for Ranma, I like the boy as well, but I wasn't aware that you'd have to put up with this kind of situation before." Mr. Tenoh said, rubbing his forehead. "I'm worried about you."

"Look, dad." Haruka started, for the third time so far. "I wasn't in that much danger. Kuno left himself wide open in the middle of the fight, and even if he hadn't, he wasn't really after me. If he'd gotten past my guard he would have knocked me aside and gone for Ranma. I probably wouldn't get as many bruises as I do when I crash in a race." She winced as she saw her father's face darken. She'd forgotten what his reaction every time he found out she'd crashed was.

Deciding that she had to cover this hole, she continued, rapidly. "Look. I just started school here, at the place where you wanted me to go anyways. I couldn't go home even if I wanted to, at least not without losing what I've got done so far."

"I don't want you to drop out of school, I just…" Mr. Tenoh said, trailing off.

"You want me to stay away from Ranma." Haruka responded, sharply.

"That's not what I said." Her father shot back, quickly.

"Well, that's about the only way I could keep safe from this kind of thing. When Ranma told me all about his life and fights before, I sort of expected things like this to happen." She thought it would be a good idea not to mention that she'd already been attacked once before now. Best not to give her father more ammo. "So, something's happened, and you want me to run away."

"Maybe he's right." Came a tired voice, from behind her.

"Ranma?" Haruka asked, surprised, as she turned around to see a depressed looking pigtailed martial artist. "What do you mean, maybe he's right?"

Ranma sighed. "I've been thinkin since that thing with Ukyo happened. It's kinda dangerous hangin 'round me. I don't wanna get you hurt."

"Thing with Ukyo?" Mr. Tenoh asked, but was drowned out by Haruka.

"What?" She yelled, walking towards Ranma and looking angry. "So, you think I cant defend myself or something?"

"No, that's not what I meant!" Ranma said, hurriedly. This was starting to resemble his conversations with Akane. "I… just." He mumbled the rest too quietly for her to hear.

"You just what, Ranma?" Haruka asked.

'Stupid, you already told her once, it's not that hard.' Ranma thought, before opening his mouth. "I just don't wanna see ya get hurt. I mean, all my life I've been getting in fights, and I probably always will. It's how I get better in the art 'n I'd probably go nuts if I didn't have a new challenge, but when I was in Nerima my fights started draggin people I cared about into 'em. That's part of the reason I left. I… I really don't want that to happen again."

Haruka sighed. "Idiot."

Ranma's head shot up to look into her eyes. This was really starting to resemble a conversation with Akane, and he was about to shoot back with a retort of his own when their eyes met. He didn't see anger there, and only a bit of annoyance. Instead of opening his mouth, he waited to hear what Haruka had to say.

Mr. Tenoh felt mildly uncomfortable. It seemed his daughter and Ranma had forgotten he was there, and he was about to turn and go, but he had to know something. Not listening to his conscience, he stayed exactly where he was.

"Ranma." Haruka said, after a short period of marshalling her thoughts. "I don't care how many idiots with grudges bash down the door, I'm staying here and there's not a damned thing you can do about it, got it?"

"But…" Ranma started, before being cut off.

"Besides, I know what you mean about always having to improve your skills and fight new opponents. You don't object to me finding newer and better ways to get myself killed on the track and we'll call it even, all right?" Haruka smirked.

Ranma nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess so." He said, before Haruka reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder.

Mr. Tenoh decided now would be a good time to leave the two to themselves.

HR.

It took several hours for the police to finish questioning everyone who had been at the Meiou house when Mr. Kuonji and Kuno had attacked, but it was finally finished. It was getting late by this point, and Setsuna had gone to bed as soon as the police were finished with her, muttering something about making a few phone calls the next morning. Ranma had been a bit more reluctant about going to sleep, especially after learning that Nodoka was injured, but after verifying that she was all right, he followed the green haired woman up.

Nodoka remained downstairs, drinking slowly from a cup of tea. She was jolted from her attempt to relax when she heard the front door open. "Haruka-chan, is that you?" She asked, wondering if the blonde was back from driving her father home. It seemed that he hadn't considered what to do after he dropped her car off for her.

"Yeah, it's me." Haruka said, hanging her jacket up on a hook in the hall and kicking off her shoes.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" Nodoka offered, watching the blonde enter the living room.

Haruka nodded. "I wanted to talk to you, anyways." She said, sliding in on the opposite side of the low table where Nodoka was sitting.

"What about?" The older woman asked, though she had a good idea what Haruka would want to know.

"How about why you said you were Ranma's aunt when that Kuonji guy said you were his mother." She said, bluntly. The last few hours hadn't exactly been fun for her, and she wasn't particularly concerned with tact.

"That's… a little hard to explain, Haruka-chan." Nodoka started, taking another sip of her tea to buy herself time to think.

"I've heard that a lot when hanging around with Ranma." The blonde replied, looking at the older woman squarely. "I know he cares about you, and I'm pretty sure you care about him, too, so what happened, and why not just call you Nodoka rather than Aunt Nodoka if he wanted to deny you as his mother?"

Nodoka sighed and started talking. "When I first went to find Ranma at the Tendo house after the training trip, I didn't know about the curse and he didn't want me to find out, so Ranma hid in his cursed form and called himself Ranko. When he was being Ranko, I sort of adopted the girl like a child. She was so lonely, and her parents weren't around." She chuckled a bit. "Not to mention that she was such a tomboy. I thought I could teach her how to be more of a lady, and she was always so willing to do anything for her 'aunty Saotome."

The slight smile that had come to her face at the memory of her attempts at training Ranko faded. "That should have made me think, but at the time I just thought that she was so starved for affection that she was latching onto me as a mother figure."

Haruka wanted to ask precisely WHY Ranma would hide from his mother, but she held back, waiting for Nodoka to continue.

"I guess…" the older woman started, after another sip of her tea, "when I finally found out about Ranma's curse, I took Ranma and Ranko as different people. Ranma showed one of his moments of extreme martial arts capability to save me from falling over a cliff, and I guess the idea that such a strong person could be the lonely and vulnerable girl I'd started mothering at the Tendo home was hard for me to believe." She looked down in shame.

"I thought all of the things he went through, the fiancées, everything, weren't nearly as bad as they really were, and when he finally snapped and left Nerima I… didn't act at all like a mother should." She looked down to take another sip from her tea, and Haruka noticed that the older woman was holding back tears.

"Look, I'm sorry I asked. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories." She said, a little lamely.

"It's all right, Haruka-chan." Nodoka said, softly. "I think I needed to talk to someone about this. I thank you." Standing, she gathered the tea supplies, all but Haruka's own cup, and headed into the kitchen. The blonde just looked mildly confused, before standing herself, taking her cup into the kitchen and heading upstairs. It'd been a long day. She snorted. That was the biggest understatement she'd made in a while.

HR.

Ukyo Kuonji looked at the form on the hospital bed in front of her with a mixture of worry and amusement. Even if the man had caused her a large amount of trouble over the years, he was her father, but the thought of what would have had to happen to put him in this situation also made her smile a bit.

Looking down at the base of the bed, she looked at the medical papers taped there. Most of the jargon regarding treatment and long term effects she couldn't understand, but the injury report was there, clear as day.

She whistled softly. "Three broken ribs, several green stick fractures in the arms and legs, a dislocated shoulder and a bad concussion. What the hell did you do to get Ranma this pissed off?" She asked, knowing from the concussion section that the man was at least awake.

All she received in reply was a low groan.

"So, I suppose this means that you acknowledge that I did my best in the pursuit of Ranma and my obligation of honor is discharged." Ukyo said, cheerfully. Honestly, this was very satisfying. The form in front of her groaned again, the sound seeming vaguely annoyed this time. Flipping her brown hair over her shoulder, the Okonomiyaki chef walked out of her father's room.

As soon as the man was coherent enough, she was going to bring a few papers that she'd requested over and have him sign them. Then, at least, government officials would stop expecting a 'Mr. Kuonji' every time they called her, like had happened when the hospital had called to notify her of her father's condition this morning.

Life wasn't precisely good, but it was a hell of a lot better than it had been a week ago, with one exception. Shaking her head, she tried to get the thought of a certain effeminate waiter out of her mind.

"Excuse me Ukyo-sam… I mean Ukyo-san?" Came a voice, causing the chef to turn and face it's owner. Standing in front of her was a strangely familiar young man, fiddling nervously with a ponytail at the base of his head.

"Yeah?" She asked, curiously.

"I was wondering, that is, I mean…" the man stammered, before clearing his throat. "Would you like to go and get some lunch?" The man said, looking down shyly.

Ukyo pondered for a moment. The person who was standing in front of her scuffing his feet did seem to be familiar, and it was honestly kind of flattering to get asked out. She shrugged. "All right, sure." She said, finally. After all, she had to move on from Ranma eventually.

Inside, Konatsu was jumping for joy. His Ukyo-sama had agreed to go on a date with him. Maybe Minako-san's advice was working? Well, admittedly, he hadn't followed much of Minako-san's advice so far aside from the clothes. Somehow, he thought that kneeling and kissing Ukyo's hand before asking her out would probably get him a spatula upside the head. Still, things were looking up for him.

'Yeah,' Both Ukyo and Konatsu thought, 'Today's going to be a good day.'

END.

Okay folks, well here's the next new chapter. I know some parts were a little cheesy, but that's a good thing sometimes, right? Please R&R, and I hope this was an improvement over chapter 26. Next chapter deals with Ukyo's date and another Youma attack. Oh my!

Also, sorry 'bout the Kuno rantings in the first part of the chapter. I was trying to be as Kunoesque as possible while not making the chapter complete and total garbage. :D


	28. Chapter 28, Dates and Youma

Hello again my friends. Sorry, been coming back to school, moving into a new house AND watching a MST3K Marathon. Question: Am I odd for thinking Doctor Forester's "Who will I Kill" was a very touching song?

At any rate, On with the chapter. Hope you all like it!

Chapter 28, Dates and Youma.

Konatsu fiddled nervously with his ponytail as he walked silently next to Ukyo. The two hadn't exchanged words since he had met her and asked her out, and the silence was becoming, at least to him, uncomfortable. He quickly glanced backwards, then returned his gaze to the sidewalk in front of him and hoped that Ukyo wouldn't notice.

"Look…" Ukyo said, her voice breaking the silence like a shotgun shot to the overly-tense male Kunoichi. "Is there something wrong, Sugar? You seem more nervous than Ran-chan around cats."

"Nothing's wrong, Ukyo-san." Konatsu said, quickly.

The Okonomiyaki chef looked at the boy walking next to her skeptically. She'd thought that she'd recognized him from somewhere, maybe Furinkan, but the way he was acting, perhaps accepting a lunch invitation wasn't the smartest move. "So where are we going for lunch?" She asked, deciding to give the boy a chance.

"I… I was thinking we go to…" Konatsu fumbled. He couldn't believe that he hadn't considered WHERE to take Ukyo-sama if he succeeded in asking her out! His eyes flicked around the street randomly, stopping briefly on a garbage can nearby before locking onto a sign that said 'Crown game center and fruit parlor.' "How about there?" He asked, pointing and trying to act like he wasn't just pointing at the first place he saw.

Ukyo shrugged. "Sure, I guess." She said, following her rather jittery date into the building.

From a nearby Garbage can, Minako Aino cursed. She'd been following Konatsu to see how he was doing, but she hadn't planned for what to do if he entered a building. To make things worse, so far he hadn't done any of the things she'd advised him to do on a first date. Once the two she was following entered the building, the Senshi of love hopped up from her cover and followed them in.

Just as she was about to clime the stairs to the second floor and find a corner booth to hide, someone called out to her. "Hi, Minako-chan!" Came Motoki's voice from the arcade's front desk. "Come back to try and get to level 34 in the Sailor V game?" Minako just sighed in temporary defeat and turned from her mission to talk to her friend.

Meanwhile, Ukyo and Konatsu had found a seat in the upstairs parlor of the crown, and Ukyo was looking over the menu that was left on the table.

Konatsu tried to do the same thing, and he was more relaxed since Minako was apparently lost in the crowd, but he kept getting distracted either by taking a glance at Ukyo or tugging nervously at the sleeves of his rather uncomfortable dress shirt. The silence between the two was broken as the waitress approached the table.

"Oh, hello Ukyo-san." Kasumi said, cheerfully.

"Kasumi?" Ukyo asked, raising her eyes from her menu to stare slack jawed at the eldest Tendo sister. "When did you get here?"

"I didn't have school this morning, so I thought I'd work a shift." Kasumi replied, completely missing Ukyo's real question. "Now what would you like to eat, Ukyo-san?"

"I'll have some battered chicken." Ukyo said, derailed by Kasumi's matter of fact delivery and losing her train of thought.

Kasumi nodded slightly, before turning to Konatsu. "And you, Konatsu-kun?" She asked, with a kind smile. Konatsu selected his order, neither he nor Kasumi noticing that Ukyo had a look of shocked surprise frozen on her face.

"K… Konatsu?" The Okonomiyaki chef stammered, pointing at the not currently cross-dressing ninja.

"Hai, Ukyo-san." Konatsu said, looking at her quizzically. "I don't really look that much different, do I? I thought you knew it was me." He looked down, his body-language starting to clash a little with his current appearance as he took a very feminine posture. "I apologize."

"Konatsu… it's all right. You just look," she shrugged, not sure what to say.

"You don't like it, Ukyo-san?" He asked.

"No, no. You look fine, Konatsu. I just didn't expect you to dress like a boy, that's all." Ukyo almost wanted to smack herself. "That is, I know you are a boy, but I'm so used to you in your Kunoichi gear." She babbled. Distantly, she wondered why she was trying so hard not to insult Konatsu.

"Well, I heard you say that you felt that I was just like that annoying Tsubasa boy who always bothers you." Konatsu explained, not seeing Ukyo's wince. "Since the only things the two of us had in common was our dressing as women, I attempted to overcome that obstacle." He grimaced. "Although it does feel a little strange."

Ukyo looked at him incredulously. "You mean you disappeared for almost two weeks, just because you were trying to find men's clothes, because of one comment that I made?" She frowned. "That you weren't even supposed to hear." She added, with a small glare.

"Yes, Ukyo-san. On the night I left the Ucchan, I found a Shinto priest who took me in. His granddaughter and her friends helped me with my clothing, as well as a few pieces of advice on how to take a girl on a date." Konatsu said. It was only after he said it that he thought of the advisability of telling Ukyo that he'd gotten advice about dating her, but she didn't seem to react to it.

The reason Ukyo hadn't reacted to the second half of Konatsu's statement was that she was currently lost in thought. At some point during their conversation, Kasumi had left and returned with her food, and Ukyo spent the next few minutes chewing and thinking.

What Konatsu had done seemed both incredibly stupid and, in an odd way, very familiar. Briefly, she recalled a time when she'd attended Furinkan in as feminine an outfit and appearance as she possibly could, strangely enough, it had also been due to an offhand comment Ranma had made while not thinking, though at the time, and until recently, she'd thought it was akin to a proposal.

The brown haired girl stopped chewing for a few seconds and swallowed hard as another realization hit her. Her relationship with Konatsu was rather similar to what Ranma's had once been with her. The male Kunoichi would do almost anything for her, and adored her. She'd dismissed it as hero worship, but this most recent incident showed that he was, in fact, interested in her and just like Ranma had with her, she'd ignored it or tried to dismiss it.

"Ukyo-san, are you all right?" Konatsu asked, and Ukyo noticed for the first time that he was clenching his jaw right after the word 'san,' as if he wanted to address her with his usual 'Sama.'

"I'm fine, Konatsu." Ukyo said, quietly, before lifting another piece of food to her mouth. After a few minutes, she spoke again. "So was that one of the people who helped you out that was following us?"

Konatsu smiled slightly. "So, you noticed Minako-san?"

"Blonde hair's kinda easy to spot." Ukyo replied. "Was it Minako's temple you stayed at?"

"No, it was Hino-san's. His granddaughter is named Rei. She has black hair. I didn't see her following us."

"So, you've been hanging around with two pretty younger girls, Maybe I should be jealous, Konatsu." Ukyo said, mentally wincing. That sentence would probably give the boy false hope, but then again, was it so false? Unlike Ranma, she didn't have half a dozen other commitments tugging her in different directions. While Konatsu blushed and stammered, she made a decision. She didn't have her dream of living with Ranma to fall back on now, and it was time to rebuild her life. If it happened to be with Konatsu, so be it.

From the doorway to the Crown's kitchen, Kasumi wore a small smile as she saw Ukyo marginally relax and start to talk quietly with Konatsu.

HR.

"This is an OUTRAGE!" Kuno Tatewaki bellowed, glaring hotly at his black clad ninja manservant, who was sitting nervously in a chair on the other side of a pane of glass.

"I'm sorry master." Sasuke's quavering voice said, as he rubbed his ears from the volume of Kuno's shout. "The family lawyers say that they're facing too much hard evidence and too many powerful people this time. I'm afraid there's nothing we can do."

Kuno huffed. He had been resigned to a few weeks in a local jail while his family's legal council arranged to free him, but what he was hearing Sasuke say now was NOT what he'd expected. Apparently, within hours of his arrest, two major families had filed charges of assault, attempted murder and willful destruction of property against him. What was worse, the only concession they were offering to drop the charges before he went to court was that he be committed to a respected mental institution. "Sasuke, I am not mentally unbalanced, and I will not suffer this indignity!" He boomed, causing the Ninja to flinch again.

"But master Kuno, the other alternative is a rather long prison sentence. Perhaps more than five years!"

The young Kuno frowned. While the idea of receiving psychiatric treatment was repugnant, the idea of wasting several years in prison was much worse. Besides, he was clearly perfectly sane, and therefore the mental hospital would be forced to release him within a week. He sighed. "Fine, Sasuke. I find this most objectionable, but see no choice. Inform the family lawyers that I shall agree to enter the mental hospital… then fire the foul naves." He growled, turning about and striding to the door that lead back to his cell proudly.

Sasuke sighed in relief. He wasn't entirely sure if psychiatric treatment would help master Kuno, but it would get him out of the way for quite a long time, and miracles do happen. Now if he could only get something similar to happen to mistress Kodachi.

HR.

Later that night, Ranma sat in Juku, staring cross-eyed at a math question. He'd previously been nibbling on the end of his pencil, but had managed to wear the eraser away to the wood and crush the metal end cap in frustration.

Ami sighed as she looked over at her Juku partner. At this point, she wasn't worried about him being an agent of darkness. No, she just wanted to get this class over with. "Ranma, you do it like this, see?" She asked, for the fourth time on this one question, tracing her own pencil across a neatly printed row of calculations in her notebook.

"But how did you solve for C?" Ranma asked, plaintively.

"You take the square of D and…" Ami was interrupted in her explanation as a loud roaring noise reverberated across the Juku class. All of the students' heads shot up, and the teacher woke with a snort.

"What was that?" Ranma asked, looking towards the source of the roar. It was behind a wall, deeper into the library.

"Do you think that was a Youma?" One student piped up, nervously.

Ranma stood and to his surprise, so did Ami. The martial artist and the younger girl both crept to the door to the hall, quickly looking out. "Yep, that's a demon all right." Ranma muttered, taking note of the large green and black striped creature that was standing in the hallway. It had a student clutched in it's large, wickedly clawed hand, and Ranma's Chi sense showed that it was sucking life energy out of the boy. "Get everyone outta here." The pigtailed martial artist said, glancing over at Ami.

"What will you be doing?" The blue haired girl asked, confused. Her question was answered as Ranma charged through the door, picking up a heavy shelf and lobbing it at the creature. Ami blinked a few times, before proceeding to usher everyone else through a different door and out of the class room. It didn't take a lot of time, since the residents of Juuban almost had a 'youma fire drill' by this point, but it was still almost three minutes before the Senshi of water was alone to transform.

In the meantime, Ranma had been distracting the youma as best as he could. His first thrown projectile had managed to knock the youma's arm hard enough to make it drop the person it was holding, but there were only a few things around here to throw, and on his first offensive attack he'd found out that this was one of the creatures that could drain energy from his limbs as he attacked.

He was tempted to use the transformation pen to turn into Sailor Neptune and destroy this thing that way, but he'd managed to get the only civilian in the immediate area out of range, and he had to make sure that he couldn't deal with this thing using his conventional martial arts before resorting to the Senshi magic.

He swung a wooden chair into the creature's side as hard as he could, causing the chair to snap, but unfortunately the Youma was unharmed. He cursed. That had been the last object around the area that could be used as a weapon, and he was currently relegated to dodging and thinking. All of his attacks would probably just feed this thing, and hitting it hard with un-charged objects hadn't worked. Genma's forbidden techniques could possibly work, but he'd made a promise to keep them forbidden. He couldn't think of any tactics that would work, at least not without a lot of preparation and luck, and unfortunately he'd just run out of time.

The martial artist had been too caught up in the fight to notice, but the Youma had been slowly draining his life energy during the fight. He had a LOT of life energy to drain, but it'd been slowing him down for about half a minute now, and the Youma used this opportunity to lash out and grab Ranma by the arm.

The pigtailed boy tried to use the arm hold as leverage to swing around and kick the youma in the abdomen, but the kick wasn't nearly as strong as it should have been. As Ranma struggled to get out of the Youma's grip and it continued to suck away his energy at an accelerated pace, a voice came from the end of the hall. "Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"

Ranma's eyes widened as a huge column of water came at the Youma. All of it's force was aimed away from him, but that didn't stop him from getting soaked.

As the redhead sputtered and rolled away from the now quite pained Youma, she saw a blue skirted sailor standing at the door at the end of the hall, her arm stretched out from the attack she'd recently launched.

Ranma wasted very little time, quickly withdrawing her transformation pen from her pocket. She'd tried fighting this thing the normal way, and it hadn't worked. She dove into the classroom she'd originally come out of, looked around to make sure no one was around and then held the pen in the air. "Neptune planet power, Make up!" She called, before the flow of water overtook her, leaving her in her sailor uniform.

HR.

Sailor Mercury gulped as she saw the Youma's newest draining victim drop to the ground and roll away. She'd gotten the thing's attention, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. She'd gotten a scan of this Youma with her computer before attacking it, and it was quite strong. Even though she now had a projectile attack, she was still more of a support member for the Senshi, and she'd have to keep the youma occupied until the others arrived.

She launched her Aqua illusion attack at the creature again as it charged down the hallway at her, but it only slowed it down slightly. Diving out of the way as a claw passed through the space she'd once occupied, Mercury observed a large hole getting punched in the wall. She quickly regained her balance and started to back off, charging another attack, when a shout she didn't recognize came from behind her.

"Deep Submerge!" Mercury flinched as a very large ball of water missed her by a couple inches, impacting against the Youma and sending it staggering back in pain. She quickly turned, seeing another Senshi. She paused for a few seconds, trying to identify the other girl. She was shorter than Ami, with bright red hair. That pretty well eliminated any of the other Senshi. Was this a new member of the team?

"Move!" The new Senshi bellowed, running forward and pulling Mercury by the arm. The blue haired girl was grateful for the help, as she saw that one of the Youma's clawed hands was buried in the ground where she'd been. "Now stop gawkin and let's destroy this thing." The redhead said, sounding distinctly annoyed.

"R…right." Mercury stammered, jumping back and sliding her visor over her eyes to scan the Youma again. "This is a left-over Droid from the Dark Moon family. If it soaks up enough damage, it should dissolve."

"Got it." The redhead said, briefly wondering what the heck the dark moon family or a 'droid' were before charging at the enemy and starting into hand-to-hand combat. As she'd thought, the Senshi transformation kept the 'droid' from sucking away any of her energy, and her blows were now doing some damage. She heard Mercury starting to charge up her attack again, and jumped away to join in.

From that point on, the battle was pretty well wrapped up. Although Sailor Moon wasn't there to administer a final blow, two Senshi constantly pounding away at it's healing ability eventually destroyed the droid.

As the creature dissolved into dust, Neptune turned and started to walk off, before being stopped by Mercury. "Excuse me?" The younger girl asked, catching the redhead's arm.

"I gotta go." Neptune said, trying to shrug off Mercury's hold.

"Who are you? You aren't one of the Senshi in our team, so who are you?" Mercury blurted.

"My name's Sailor Neptune. Sorry about this, but I really gotta go." The redhead said, successfully dislodging Mercury's arm and running. She had a few things to think about before talking to the other Senshi.

HR.

Setsuna rubbed her forehead. Ranma had just proceeded to make things a lot more complicated, unknowingly, of course. She had thought that it would take another encounter with a Youma to make Ranma accept her role as a Senshi, and had been prepared to teleport in to assist the redhead if necessary, but she hadn't been planning on Mercury's interference.

Normally, the outer Senshi wouldn't be revealed to the inners even as Senshi for another few weeks, but as it was, Mercury, and soon all of the inners, would at least know about Neptune. This could cause a problem regarding the outers' mission of checking heart crystals, but she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

Haruka was supposed to awaken in only a few days, and she had to be ready for the event. Hopefully, the even more drastic derailing of the Senshi related timeline that had just occurred wouldn't effect it. She needed to speak with both of them soon after that. Sighing in irritation, the green haired woman teleported from the gates of time back into her bedroom. This was not her century.

END.

Well, that's all folks. Please remember to drop me a review.

Push the button, Frank.


	29. Chapter 29, Curses, Confusion, and

Hi again People. Here's the new chapter. A bit filler-ish IMHO, but I hope you like it all the same.

Also, as a side note, School sucks.

Chapter 29, Curses, Confusion, and Confessions.

"Ranma-san, are you in here?" Ami Mizuno asked, looking through the wreckage of the Droid attack for her pigtailed study partner. She had tried to chase after Neptune when she was in Senshi form, but the other Senshi had seemingly completely disappeared, and her natural instincts as someone who wanted to someday become a doctor had taken over.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Ranma had also disappeared without a trace. Come to think of it, she hadn't really seen him since he'd started fighting the droid and she'd started evacuating the other students. She'd thought he'd been the person that was fighting the droid when she blasted it with her Aqua Rhapsody, but that had turned out to be a girl. She was just about to give up on looking for the pigtailed boy when a voice came from behind her. "Hey Ami, I was lookin for ya."

The dark-blue haired girl almost jumped out of her skin, quickly slipping something into a pocket and turning around to see that Ranma was standing behind her, looking slightly relieved. "Got kinda worried when I didn't see ya outside. You okay?" He asked, concerned.

"Oh, Yes. I'm fine." Ami said, after calming herself down. "I actually came in here looking for you." She looked him over for a moment, noting that there were tears all over his shirt and pant legs. "Oh, you're hurt!" She noted, grabbing for one arm.

"Nah, it's all right." The boy said, shrugging her off. I got the heck outta the way when the Senshi showed up ta get rid of that monster." He felt a little bit of annoyance at having to say something like that, even if he, or at the time, she, had been one of the Senshi in question. It made him sound like a complete coward. "Look, I just came back ta make sure you're okay." He looked around the hallway for a moment, frowning. "I'm pretty sure class ain't gunna start up again today, so I'm headed home."

"All right." Ami said, letting her eyes narrow with a slight suspicion when the pigtailed boy turned to leave. There was definitely something odd going on around here, especially since Ranma appeared actually not to have taken any serious wounds when she lifted his arm to get a look at it. For something like that to be the case, especially with how torn up his clothes were, he would have to have the healing ability of a Senshi.

Reaching into her pocket, the Senshi of Mercury brought out her computer. Yes, it had gotten a complete record of the battle with the Droid. She knew that Konatsu had told her and the other Senshi not to worry about Ranma, but most people they'd encountered with a magical signature of any sort usually ended up as either allies or deadly enemies, and she intended to find out precisely what side of that divide Ranma stood on.

HR.

As he walked towards home, Ranma pulled out the small pen that he'd used to become Sailor Neptune earlier in the afternoon. Frowning at it, he flipped it a couple of times in his hand. Unfortunately, he couldn't ignore it any longer. He had fought a demon with all of the moves at his disposal short of the forbidden techniques, and it had figuratively chewed him up and spat him out. Now, he had two options. One was definitely distasteful, to use the power of the transformation pen to become Sailor Neptune again and fight the enemy, but the other was even worse.

He clenched his hand around the small device. "I won't stand by and do nothin." He growled, irritated. Even if Happosai hadn't re-instated his title as a practitioner of the anything goes school before his death, the idea of just sitting there and letting demons terrorize innocent people without being able to do anything about it was completely unacceptable.

He thought for a moment, trying to decide what to do. He still hadn't figured out what he was going to do about Happosai's legacy, and now he had to figure out how to be, he shuddered for a moment, a magical girl. No, he shook his head. The Senshi, as the name flat out stated, were warriors. Something in the back of his mind told him this. The uniforms had their reasons, though he'd be sure to ask Pluto what the hell those reasons were the next time he saw her. Until then, she would have to train with the powers of Neptune and see what could be done with them. Who knew, if he was lucky, maybe he could access them without the transformation. He smiled a little at that thought, before Setsuna's house came into view.

HR.

"Sunday? …Yeah, sure. I guess." Haruka Tenoh said, surprised, as she leaned back in a chair in Setsuna's living room. She had a phone held in one hand. "It's kind of early, though. You sure that you'll have my bike ready by then? Yeah, Okay. Goodbye." She finally said, hanging up the phone.

"What was that, Haruka-chan?" Nodoka asked, as she entered the room from the kitchen.

"It was just my boss." The blonde explained. "He's got a good race booked on Sunday. Apparently Setsuna told him about it and he liked the idea of entering me into it."

"Setsuna-san did?" Nodoka asked, looking around. "Where is she? I thought that she would be back from work by now."

Haruka shrugged, as she heard the front door to the house open. "Don't know. Haven't seen her since I got back." She explained.

"I'm home!" Came Ranma's voice from the front door.

"Hi Ranma. Hey, I just found out that I've…" Haruka trailed off as she saw Ranma enter the room, his clothes appearing as if they'd gone through a paper shredder. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Ah, nothin. Just another fight." Ranma said, dismissively.

Haruka's eye twitched violently, while Nodoka only looked slightly concerned, but also slightly exasperated, as though this was an everyday occurrence.

"Do you need the first-aid kit, Ranma?" The auburn haired woman asked, getting up from where she'd sat across from Haruka's chair.

"Nah, I'm all right, aunt Nodoka." The pigtailed boy said, casually. "Now what was it you were sayin, Haruka?"

"Oh… right." The blonde said, recomposing herself. "I have a race on Sunday, and I was wondering if you wanted to come."

"Yeah, sure." Ranma shrugged. "Lemme guess, I gotta go as a girl again."

Haruka looked slightly sheepish. "Erm, yeah." She said, then quickly continued. "But it's only the race, so you don't have to worry about getting dressed up like last time."

Ranma nodded.

"What about you, Nodoka-san, want to come? I can get you in for free." She offered.

"No thank you, Haruka-chan. I have to do something that morning." Nodoka said, a small flicker of worry seeming to cross her face.

Ranma looked at the older woman strangely before asking, "What do you have to do?"

Nodoka took a bit of a steadying breath before speaking. "I've decided that I have imposed on Setsuna-san's hospitality for long enough and have also finally managed to get a message through to my parents. I will be going to talk to them about regaining my original family name that morning."

Ranma looked surprised, but he really couldn't say anything. He wanted to say that she was no imposition, but it wasn't his house, and even he could figure out that doing that in such a situation wouldn't be the politest idea. He looked apologetically at Haruka before asking, "You want me to come with ya?"

"No, no Ranma." The older woman reassured quickly. "I'll have to do this myself." Mentally, she added that Ranma's tendency to shoot off at the mouth may cause some… interesting… reactions in her family elders. Compared to them, she acted almost wild.

Ranma nodded, and the three of them fell into a quiet conversation for quite a while.

HR.

Kasumi Tendo blushed profusely as she hung up the phone in the residential area of the crown. "Oh my." She mumbled, clutching a hand over each cheek.

"Is there something wrong, Kasumi-san?" Motoki asked, as he walked through the house's living room. It was a fair question, as the eldest Tendo sister looked as if she were going to faint.

"N… No, Motoki-kun." Kasumi stammered, quickly. The boy left, but a few moments later, Unazuki entered.

"Hey Kasumi, my brother says there's something wrong." She said, as she caught a look at the brown haired girl's face. "Wow, did that doctor friend of yours call and ask you on a date or something? You look embarrassed."

"That… wasn't exactly it, Unazuki-chan." Kasumi squeaked.

"Well, what was it then?" The redhead asked, impatiently.

"I called Tofu-sensei's mother, t… to ask her how she got his father to settle down with her, since she said that he had the same problem that Tofu-sensei does." Kasumi explained, her blush getting even worse for a moment, if that were even possible.

"Ah, so you're finally doing something? What got you to act?" Unazuki asked, slumping onto a couch. She knew that asking all these questions about Kasumi's life was a little rude, but the oldest Tendo had been pretty well the most interesting thing that had come along in a while, and she'd always fancied herself as a bit of a romantic.

"I saw Ukyo-chan and Konatsu-kun in the restaurant this morning." Kasumi explained. "It just made me think, so I thought that I would ask."

"So, what did she tell you?" The redhead excitedly asked, leaning forward.

Kasumi told her.

"Oh... Oh my." She said, her eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

HR.

Ami Mizuno sat at her desk at home, several dozen school books stacked on one side. She had only finished a couple of chapters tonight, but she had something more important to look at for the moment. Flipping open her Mercury computer, she tabbed through the various recordings and file archives until she got to the sensor feeds from the battle this afternoon.

She brought up the video feed, sighing in relief when a coherent image popped up. She'd dropped the device at the entrance of the hallway where most of the battle had taken place when she'd exited, and when she'd returned and recovered it, it had been facing the droid, but she hadn't been sure of what had happened in the meantime. Playing back the video at 1/4 speed and monitoring the energy readings, she was surprised to see that the magic signature that Ranma let off didn't change one bit as he fought.

Most of what he was doing was within the realms of very good martial artists, in fact Makoto could do a decent amount of it, but when he occasionally went into super-human bursts of speed, all the readings showed was in increased amount of life energy flowing through his body.

As the battle neared the time when she, as Sailor Mercury, was about to show up, she was about to shut the feed down. Her hand stopped about half an inch from the necessary key, though, as the machine suddenly did show that magical signature spiking. "Hmm?" She muttered, keying in the command to rewind several frames. There it was. The droid had been holding Ranma in its claws, and she'd blasted it with an Aqua rhapsody... and it happened. She zoomed the image in a little bit on Ranma, and saw as his form seemed to ripple and change, becoming smaller. His hair turned red, and a petite looking girl was left as the final result, rolling away from the battle quickly.

Ami looked at the screen for several more seconds, stunned. Yes, she'd seen shape shifting in Youma before, but the energy she'd detected wasn't negative in any form. As the thoughts slowly ran through her head, another idea came to her. She and Ranma had been the only two people in the building, and that new Senshi had come out of the doorway that Ranma had rolled in through. She shook her head. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but she quickly made a note to bring it up next meeting, and make sure that it was seriously dealt with.

HR.

Shampoo let out a long breath as she finally managed to slog through the poorly maintained paths that had been set up to ensure that outsiders couldn't get near the village's main paths, wiping the sweat from her brow. Lowering her hand, she cursed as she saw that there was a small line of blood on it. She would have to get it treated by the village healers when she arrived.

Trudging down the main path, she thought about what had brought her to this point. Her great grandmother, Ranma, and even Mousse had decided to go against both her wishes and the tribe's laws, and she couldn't understand why. All right, after Saffron she had to privately admit that she knew why Ranma had done it, but her great grandmother? There was something wrong, there. As she approached the village's front gates and the guard who was on duty there, she quickly made a series of hand signals that indicated her as a friend. The return signals were made, and she walked up to the sentry.

"I am Xian Pu, warrior of the Joketsuzoku." She identified herself, in strong and clear Chinese. How wonderful it was to speak her own language once again. She'd been enjoying it ever since she reached the shore, well, ever since she'd managed to turn back to human form at least.

"Xian Pu?" The guard asked, her eyes slightly wide.

Shampoo was about to nod, when the guard started yelling about an intruder and raising her weapon. It was a good thing for the purple haired Chinese girl that she didn't start looking around for the threat. As it was, she barely got her bonbori up in time to block the guard's first strike.

HR.

"Ranma?" Haruka asked, as the pigtailed boy ran slowly through a Kata in front of her in the Meiou house's back yard.

"Hmm?" The pigtailed boy asked, not stopping in his movements.

The blonde questioned doing what she was about to for a moment, before deciding that she may as well bite the bullet and ask. "Why do you call Nodoka 'aunt?'" She finally asked, and was startled as he fumbled in the middle of his stance.

Dropping a raised foot to the ground, he looked at her, startled. "What do you mean?" He asked, lamely.

She sighed. "You know what I mean. That Kuonji guy pretty well identified her as your mom, and I asked her afterwards… so what's with the aunt Nodoka stuff. I mean, if you were trying to keep the relation hidden from me and Setsuna, why are you still doing it?"

Ranma sighed. "Look, I really don't wanna talk about it."

Haruka thought for a second, and then growled. "You know, I really want to hit you right now." She said, clenching her fists.

"Huh?" He asked, confused.

"Ranma, I'm not stupid." She started. "You've been acting weird since yesterday, and I thought it had something to do with your mom. I know there's SOMETHING wrong, and when I try to find out, all you say is 'I don't wanna talk about it.'" She shook her head. "So, are you going to tell me what's wrong, or should I just give up?"

Ranma just stared at Haruka for a moment, unsure of what to say. He was pretty sure that telling her to forget about it again would be an incredibly stupid thing to say, especially since she was glairing at him rather hotly, but he wasn't sure of the alternative. He definitely couldn't tell her about the Senshi thing, for a number of reasons, but she'd asked. He decided to talk about a second problem. "Do you know what that paper Happosai gave me yesterday means?" He started.

Haruka looked at him oddly. "It means that you're a grand master of your martial arts school, right?"

"Yeah, but that's not all of it. It also means that I've got to go get his scrolls and work them into the school that I know." He paused for a second, "And that I have to take responsibility for, and regulate, any students of the school according to my own codes of conduct." Haruka just looked at him blankly, before he clarified. "The old freak's scrolls are hidden in his bedroom at the Tendo place, and havin 'ta take responsibility for the students means I gotta go see pop, erm, Genma and Mr. Tendo."

A light seemed to dawn over Haruka's features as she pondered this. "So that means…" She started, and then nodded. "Yeah, I can see why you having to go back there'd make you so upset."

"Yeah." Ranma said, slowly.

"Well, I guess that means I'm going to have to go with you." Haruka said, simply.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, looking into Haruka's eyes as she smiled.

"After all, you've got an old girlfriend there, and I have to make sure you're not flirting." She said, joking… and then wanted to kick herself as she saw Ranma flinching. 'Okay, that was stupid.' She thought, before waving her hands in front of her face. "It was a joke!" She quickly exclaimed.

"Oh, erm, sorry." Ranma replied, sheepishly.

A silence fell between the two for a moment, before Haruka broke it. "So, should we keep going?"

Ranma only nodded, and then began his next Kata, though he felt his shoulders lighten considerably.

END.


	30. Chapter 30, From Dream to Reality

Weebee is sitting behind the wheel of a delorean, while the back to the future music plays.

Weebee: (Looks down at speedometer.) Okay, 88 MPH... Time to go back to Nerima!

The Delorean zooms off screen, before a tremendous crash is heard.

Weebee(Weakly):Note to self, never drive a car if blind... Ite...

Chapter 30, From Dream to Reality, The Return to Nerima.

The sky was red, but Ranma couldn't see a sign of the sun as he walked slowly through the streets of Nerima. The buildings on either side all seemed to have been caught in a massive martial arts duel, having crumbled almost completely, and the streets were spider webbed with cracks. "What happened here?" He wondered, before rounding the corner that lead to the Tendo Dojo. The front gates were knocked off of their hinges, laying on the ground in front of the entrance, and the walls were half demolished.

Worried, the pigtailed martial artist increased speed, running into the compound's front yard, only to stop cold as he caught a view into the tea room. The whole Tendo family was there, along with Genma and Nodoka. The problem was that they had all seemingly turned to stone. Distantly, he noted that Akane had been caught half way through pouring a cup of green tea. As if to cement the disturbing image, Haruka was standing in the doorway to the front hall, seemingly leaning casually against the frame, though she was just as immobile as the rest of them.

"What the hell's goin on here!" He yelled, turning immediately at the sound of an explosion, quite a shock in the almost completely silent world. As he looked up into the sky, he saw a shape trace itself in fire, some sort of crooked looking lower case romaji H with a cross at the top. He only saw this for an instant, before the world became completely dark and silent.

HR.

"Gah!" Ranma gasped, as he shot upright in his bed. "Weird dream." He muttered, scrubbing his eyes free of the sleep in their corners. Silently, he noted that he was lucky that Setsuna had eventually replaced the beds in his and Haruka's rooms, since if they'd still been sharing that double bed he'd probably have woken her up. For a moment, he blushed as he remembered the green haired woman's comment about storing the bed in the basement until they actually got married.

Looking at the alarm clock that rested next to the bed, he cursed. It was 5:30, which meant that he probably wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, especially after all these nights of getting a good night's rest. Sighing, he got out of bed and grabbed a set of clothes out of the dresser. "May as well do some training." He said, before his eyes caught on the shape of the transformation pen that was sitting, half hidden under a book, on his desk. "Almost forgot about that." Picking up the little blue stick, he stuck it in a pocket, reluctantly. As he left the house, he didn't notice that an upstairs window was open, and a face surrounded with green hair was watching from it.

HR.

A short time later, in a vacant lot near the house, a blue-green clad redhead moved fluidly through several stances, Her mind quickly cataloguing every movement that her Senshi power enhanced body made. Since she had decided yesterday that she would have to master the powers of the transformation, she figured that now would be the best time to get some practice in. After all, when she'd first gotten her curse, her unfamiliarity with the form had come back to bite her in the ass, hard, in her first couple fights.

As her body went through the motions, she examined the energy that flowed through it. Her chi was pretty close to unusable, since some force, presumably the one that kept her from being drained by demons, kept almost all of it tightly bound in the middle of her chest. The problem with this was that she couldn't feel and manipulate that magic nearly as well as she could Chi. In fact, she could barely feel it.

Stopping the kata she had been performing, she cupped her hands in front of her body and tried focusing energy into them. An instant later, she found herself shouting "Deep Submerge!" and releasing a huge ball of water. Her eyes widened as she realized that the ball was headed straight for a brick wall, and, given what it had done to the demons she'd fired it at, would probably demolish it. Wincing and waiting for the property damage, the redhead blinked as the attack hit and seemed to splash like an oversized water balloon, doing nothing but soaking it thoroughly.

"Huh?" She asked, stepping forward to the impact point and touching it. All she felt through her white glove was a wet section of brick wall, though a small tingle seemed to run down her arm as she came in contact with the remaining water.

"Our attacks don't cause damage to normal matter unless we want them to."

"Gah!" Sailor Neptune yelped, jumping about five feet before spinning around to see an amused Sailor Pluto standing off to the side of the vacant lot. "Don't do that…" She gasped, glairing.

Pluto just smiled a little more as she stepped into the lot. "So, I see you've accepted your position as Sailor Neptune." She stated, evenly.

"I don't really got a choice, do I?" Neptune grumbled, looking down at the uniform in mild disgust.

"You could always just not fight the Youma." Pluto said, knowing Ranma's personality well enough to know what was coming next.

"That ain't an option." The younger girl replied, instantly. "I ain't gunna leave people to be drained by monsters."

Pluto simply nodded. "I know that this wasn't an easy decision for you to make, but it was needed." She said, calmly.

"Yeah, I've gotten hit with a lot of stuff I didn't want to lately." Neptune grumbled, sighing.

Pluto raised an eyebrow. "Care to talk about it?" She offered, half way seriously.

"Huh? With you?" The redhead asked, incredulously, and then winced as she realized how that had come out. "I mean, you don't really know me at all, why would ya wanna listen ta me complain?"

Pluto smiled. "As I believe I told you once before, I knew your past self a long time ago. We were friends, or at least allies."

Neptune frowned, as she leaned up against the wall she had been touching before, the water having since dried. "Yeah, ya said that before." She mumbled, and then a thought seemed to occur to her. "Does becomin a Senshi make ya have weird dreams?"

Pluto looked at her, confused. "Weird dreams?" She asked, surprised. "I don't understand."

"Well," Neptune said, explaining. "Normally, I don't have many dreams, 'n there's only one that I can really remember for long when I wake up. This mornin I had a dream that I could remember after, and it was kinda disturbin."

Pluto stood for a moment, in deep thought. She knew that both Mars and Neptune had had a weak form of dream based precognition in the silver millennium, and that Mars' had become stronger in the modern age with her training as a miko. Still, the Silver Millennium hadn't bothered doing much research into it, since the time gates were much more powerful. "Could you tell me about this dream?" She asked, slowly. As Neptune did so, Pluto's sense of worry began to grow. "Could you draw that symbol you said you saw at the end of the dream for me?" She finally asked.

"Oh, sure." Neptune replied, concerned due to the worried look that Pluto was giving her. Kneeling down on the ground in the lot, she noted that it was soft dirt and began to make an imprint in it. As she finished and looked up, Pluto's face had turned a sickly grey color. "Erm, Pluto, are you all right?" She asked. The green haired woman didn't answer, simply seeming to pull a large key shaped staff from nowhere, and teleporting away.

"What was wrong with her?" Neptune asked, scuffing the symbol of Saturn into non-existence with her boot. As she looked up, she noticed that the sun was coming up. "Damn, I'd better get back." She said, touching her broach and willing the transformation back to civilian form.

HR.

Haruka walked down the stairs into the kitchen, stopping in brief surprise as she saw that the only person there was Nodoka. The older woman was standing by the stove, cooking something. "Good morning, Nodoka-san." She greeted, looking around the room. "Have you seen Ranma or Setsuna?"

Nodoka shook her head. "I haven't seen either of them this morning." She answered, taking the pot off of the stove and spreading its contents over the plates on the table. It appeared to be some sort of vegetable dish, but Haruka was too tired to identify it at the moment. Heading over to the sink, she poured herself a glass of water before sitting down.

At that moment, the front door opened and the two women in the kitchen heard someone enter the house. "I'm home!" Ranma called, though softly enough that she wouldn't wake anyone who was still asleep upstairs.

"Welcome home!" Nodoka called back, automatically.

After the redhead entered the kitchen, wearing her usual Chinese pants and a grey tank top, Haruka looked at her curiously. "So, where'd you go this morning?"

"Just went out ta get some trainin." Ranma explained. "Needed ta work on practicing in my girl form since I haven't done it for a while."

"I could have helped you with that." Haruka said, grinning.

Ranma just shook her head. She wasn't entirely sure how to take that, especially since Haruka's grin was more of the perverse kind than anything else.

Behind the two, Nodoka just brought up a hand, trying to conceal a grin. Originally, she'd been unsure about how to feel about Haruka's interest in Ranma's girl form, but had finally decided to let Ranma figure it out for himself. "So, what are you two planning for today?" She finally asked, after getting her rebellious expression under control.

Haruka just shrugged, as if to imply a simple 'whatever,' though Ranma seemed to stiffen. There was nothing for her to do today. No school, no extra practice, even Haruka's race wasn't scheduled until tomorrow. "I… think I have to head over to Nerima today." She responded, causing a surprised look from her 'aunt' and a slightly less surprised one from Haruka. "There's some stuff I gotta do."

"I see." Nodoka said, frowning. "I assume that it involves the Tendo family?"

"Yeah." Ranma responded, simply.

"I'm afraid I can't go with you, Ranma." Nodoka said, her face growing angry. "That id… Mr. Tendo," She continued, catching herself before she said something that she would regret, "told me that I wasn't welcome on his property."

"Yeah." Ranma said, remembering what Nodoka had told her when she'd first come to the Minato ward. Her decision regarding precisely what to do about Mr. Tendo suddenly felt a lot less cruel.

"Well, I'm going with you. I'll drive you over to Nerima." Haruka said. She saw that Ranma was about to object, and cut her off. "I told you last night, I'm going with you."

Ranma just sighed in defeat. "All right, just let me get changed first." She said, heading upstairs.

HR.

Ami Mizuno sat in the living room of the Hikawa shrine where she and the other Senshi normally met, waiting patiently. Rei Hino was already here, though she'd gone back to doing her chores until the others arrived. Ami had offered to help, especially since Rei looked unusually exhausted, but the miko had told her not to worry about it.

As she waited, the dark blue haired Senshi opened up her Mercury computer again, scanning through the data she'd acquired. She was hoping to come up with some more concrete facts before she presented what she'd found to the others, since some of them, namely Venus and Moon, were inclined not to take something seriously unless it was a hard certainty rather than just suspicious things going on.

"Hi, Ami-chan." Came a cheerful voice, causing the girl to jump a little and knock her computer to the floor.

"Mako-chan?" She asked, after turning around to see the tall brown haired girl smiling down at her.

"You must be studying something interesting." The taller girl said, kneeling at the table next to her friend. "So, why did you call us here this morning?"

"I'd rather hold off on explaining that until everyone shows up." Ami said, eliciting a nod from Makoto. Minako was the next one to arrive, and Usagi showed up ten minutes later with a hurried apology that everyone other than Rei accepted without grumbling.

"So Ami, why did you make me run all the way here from detention?" Usagi whined, though the other girls could hear a bit of teasing in the question.

Before Rei could shoot back with her usual gibe about why Usagi was in detention on a half day, Ami broke in with the only sentence that she could think of that would establish the mood of the meeting as serious. "I saw a new Senshi yesterday."

The little talk that had been going on between Minako and Makoto, as well as the feline greeting of Luna and Artemis, stopped dead at that statement. "What?!" Came six questions at once. Ami nodded, keying up the video of the fight on her computer, and fast-forwarding it to the point where Neptune had shown up. The other Senshi crowded around her, the two cats each taking a shoulder as they watched.

"Wow, another water Senshi?" Usagi asked, all traces of her whining gone for the moment.

"Hmm…" Artemis mumbled, causing the black cat on Ami's other shoulder to look towards him sharply.

"Do you know something about this Senshi?" Luna asked. Her and Artemis's memories had both been badly mangled during the cryogenic sleep that had brought them to the modern time, though he obviously knew different things than she did.

"I think so." Artemis said. "She looks different, though."

"So who is she?" Minako asked, as the five settled back to their proper positions after the video was finished.

"I think that was Sailor Neptune." Artemis said, getting a nod from Ami.

"That's what she said her name was." The Senshi of water interjected.

The white cat threw her an annoyed glance, before hopping into the middle of the table and continuing. "She was a member of the Outer Senshi. I'm guessing that the reason I remember them and Luna doesn't is because Venus had a lot of involvement with them."

"I did, why?" Minako asked, curious, as she leaned forward.

"Well, you were the leader of the inner Senshi at that time, and you occasionally coordinated actions with them." The cat explained.

"So, we've got another new Senshi, that's great!" Usagi said, excitedly.

"If we can find her." Ami interjected, causing the blonde to deflate a little. "She ran pretty quickly when the battle was over yesterday. It's possible that she doesn't want to work with the rest of us, or that she's as confused about her powers as we were when we got ours, only without Luna or another Senshi to explain."

"There is another problem." Artemis said, even though he didn't want to add any bad news to the situation. "The outer Senshi usually weren't involved in anything short of full scale wars during the silver millennium. If Neptune did retain any of her memories from that time, she may be… a little more willing than you are to inflict collateral damage."

"Usagi frowned. "I don't like the sound of that." She said, perfectly serious for the first time all meeting. "The next time one of us sees Sailor Neptune, we should do all we can to talk to her."

The other four girls and the cats all nodded, and the room fell into a slightly tense silence, before Usagi broke it. "Hey Rei, can I borrow a Manga?" The black haired Senshi face faulted, her hands twitching spastically.

HR.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Haruka asked, as her car turned the final corner onto the street where the Tendo Dojo was located. It'd taken them a couple of hours to get through central Tokyo's legendary traffic, as Nerima was on the other side of the city from Minato and she'd gotten a little lost, but Ranma had just sat there for the whole time, a troubled look on his face as he looked into the roof.

"Oh, huh? Yeah, I'm sure. No point in puttin it off, right?" Ranma said, absently, refocusing his eyes on the world around him.

Haruka looked at him a little worriedly, but decided that she wouldn't ask again. Seeing the large stone walls and wooden gate that marked the Dojo, hard to miss even though she hadn't seen it before, she brought the car to a stop and turned off the engine. "We're here." She said.

Ranma merely nodded, opening the door on his side of the car and getting out.

Unknown to anyone in or around the Tendo home, a small black clad shape lurked in the bushes on the other side of the road. "I'm sorry Ranma-san." It moaned softly, before hopping off.

HR.

Inside of the house, Nabiki was reclining on the couch in the front room when she heard the sound of a car pulling into the street outside. The area of Nerima where the Dojo was wasn't very accessible for vehicles, so her curiosity was peaked. Standing, she headed for the door. Sure enough, a knock came as she approached. Opening the door, the middle Tendo sister's eyes widened as she saw the pigtailed boy standing on the other side, a taller blonde haired person standing next to him. Her eyes briefly passed over the other person, noting that it was a woman in decently fitting men's clothing. Par for the course considering Ranma, really. As her eyes came back to the boy in question, she noted that he wasn't dirty or hungry looking, so he wasn't coming back to ask to stay. She hadn't expected that, given the few mentions Kasumi had made of him, but it was a possibility.

"Hi, Ranma-Kun." She said, in her usual calm drawl, not letting any of the surprise she actually felt surface.

"Hey, Nabiki. Who's around right now?" Ranma asked, fidgeting.

Nabiki raised an eyebrow, but answered anyways. "Daddy and Mr. Saotome are playing shogi in the living room, as usual. Akane's at volleyball club practice. So, who's your friend, Ranma? You didn't introduce her to me. That's pretty rude, you know." She finished.

"Oh, right." Ranma said, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "Nabiki, this is Haruka. Haruka, Nabiki." He gestured between the two.

"Nice to meet you." Haruka said, bowing slightly.

"So, I guess I should let you in." Nabiki said, backing away from the door and turning to walk into the house. Ranma nodded, following, with Haruka behind him.

As the two walked through the front hall, the blonde's eyes flicked around, taking note of her surroundings. It had been where Ranma had lived for two years, and even by itself, a dojo this size was in interesting sight in the middle of Tokyo. As her eyes moved across various decorations on the walls, she noticed that there were many barely visible patches where fresh paint, and presumably wall patches, had been applied. The place also seemed to be in a state of slight disorganization, as if it hadn't been thoroughly cleaned for a while. She was jolted out of her inspection by the sound of two men shouting.

"Boy-Ranma my boy, you're back!" Came a double shout from the Shoji board, as a thin brown haired man hopped from his seat to run towards the pigtailed martial artist. Next to him, a fat, bald man managed to drag himself to his feet on a pair of crutches. He also had several bandages on other parts of his body, and he winced as he started to slowly move towards Ranma.

"I see you've come to regret your dishonorable ways and are willing to come back." The bald man said, in a low, gravely voice.

"The schools will finally be joined!" The other one shouted, happily. The two kept on like this for a moment, while Ranma's face began to darken. Haruka looked at the brown haired girl who was standing next to her and asked, "Are they always like this?" She had heard Ranma's stories, but this was stupid.

The other girl just shrugged. "It gets worse." She answered, casually.

It was at about this point that Ranma lost patience. "Would you two shut up?!" He bellowed, at the top of his lungs. Soun and Genma stopped. They stopped dead, gaping at Ranma. Yes, he had yelled at or about them before, but never with this kind authority. "I ain't here to join any schools or nothin like that." He snapped.

"But…" The bald man said, before Ranma shoved a piece of paper into his hands. He read it for a moment, before shaking his head. "This can't be right." He grumbled.

"What is it Saotome?" The other man asked, peering at what his bald friend had in his hand. "Gra… Gra… Grand master?" He stuttered, shocked.

Nabiki's eyebrow shot all the way up to her hairline. "Grand master, eh Saotome?" She asked, accidentally falling back into her old method of address for a second. "How'd ya do that?"

"It was the ol'… I mean Master Happosai's final wish." Ranma explained. "He figured I was a better candidate than these two idiots."

Nabiki smirked. "Gotta agree with ya there." She said, and had to resist the urge to change that smirk into a genuine smile. With Ranma as grand master, one of her ideas for getting the Tendo family on its feet just got a lot easier.

"Feh." Genma said, snorting. "This is just a piece of paper. You're far too bad of a student to be the grand master of the school." He said, crumpling the certificate in his meaty fist.

Ranma smirked. "That ain't the original, Genma." He said.

Genma frowned. Just as he was about to try and execute another of his 'get the boy to see reason' plans, the front door to the house opened.

"Hi everyone, I'm home." Came a familiar voice, that caused Ranma to stiffen. "Hey Nabiki, there's a really expensive looking yellow sports car out front, what's… going… on?" Akane's question trailed off, as she entered the living room to see the group that was gathered there. "Ranma?" She breathed, astonished.

"Erm, Akane… I…" Ranma started, but was cut off as the blue-black haired girl ran towards him.

"Baka, you came back. You came back!" Akane said, happily, as she grabbed Ranma in a hug. The pigtailed boy looked distinctly uncomfortable, as he sent a helpless glance around the room.

Nabiki was looking on with an unreadable expression. Genma and Soun were looking extremely hopeful. Haruka was the biggest surprise. She did look a little annoyed, but not at the clobbering level, and she just returned his look with a helpless shrug of her own.

"Akane." Ranma finally said, wriggling to try and get out of her hug.

Akane let go a few seconds later, looking up into Ranma's face. What she saw there was a mixture of uncertainty and sadness. "You… you didn't come back to see me, did you?" She asked, softly.

"I…" Ranma stammered.

"It's okay Ranma." Akane said, trying to mask the look on her face. The fact that one of her dreams was to be an actor didn't help at all.

"Akane, I'm sorry. I had ta come back to see the old guys." Ranma said.

"Idiot, I wanted you to come back!" The girl yelled, before running off.

"Akane, wait!" Ranma called, preparing to charge after her. He was interrupted by the sound of Genma Saotome's battle cry as he charged at his former son, Soun Tendo close behind. "Damn it." He said, glairing at the two. "Someone go after her!" He could instantly KO both of them, but Genma looked badly injured, and the force needed could screw him up further. Ranma's fight got slightly more complex as Genma shimmered for a moment, and then disappeared.

Meanwhile, Haruka looked at Nabiki. The middle Tendo sister was starting to move, but she was going pretty slow. Haruka pelted out of the house at top speed, and just managed to see the trailing end of a blue skirt trailing around a corner two blocks away. "Damn it." She swore, speeding up.

HR.

She found Akane about five minutes later. The blue-black haired girl was sitting at the edge of a canal, chucking rocks in… big rocks. She winced as another of the large stone projectiles hit the surface with a growl of fury, but took a deep breath and moved in. "Akane-san?" She asked, cautiously.

"Hmm?" Akane asked, turning towards the voice. Her eyes were red with tears. "Who are you?" She immediately fell into a combat stance, right arm extended in front while her left defended her chest.

"My name's Haruka Tenoh. I was at your house when you came home." Haruka grinned a little. "I guess you didn't notice me because of Ranma."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Akane said, trying to compose herself. The attempt failed, as Haruka could see a few tears leak from the other girl's eyes.

"You really did love him, didn't you?" She asked, shaking her head in wonder.

"No! I mean… I… It isn't any of your business." Akane sputtered. "Why are you here, anyways?"

"Well, Ranma wanted to see if you were okay…" Haruka started, before being interrupted.

"So the idiot sent someone else?" Akane said, sniffing.

"Your father and Mr. Saotome attacked him before he could come himself." Haruka shot back, her voice starting to get annoyed.

"Oh." Akane sighed. "There I go again. Jumping to conclusions." She laughed slightly bitterly. "When you first showed up, I even thought for a second that you and Ranma were a couple, even though you were a boy."

Haruka fidgeted nervously. "Well…" She said, not really wanting to say what was next, but also not wanting to lie to the girl in front of her, who seemed so sad right now. "We kinda are, and I'm not actually a guy."

"Oh." Akane looked down. "So that's why he didn't come back here. He found another person with a curse to be with."

"Huh?" Haruka asked, blinking rapidly. "I don't have a curse, I just dress like a guy."

Akane blushed, then slumped to the grass. "I guess I'm completely wrong today." She mumbled, looking down at the grass. This was odd. When Ranma had described Akane, he'd said that she was really energetic, and kind of argumentative. This girl seemed completely different.

Sitting down on the grass next to Akane, she picked up a small rock of her own, about half the size of her hand, and threw it overhand into the canal.

"So, how do you deal with it?" Akane asked, out of the blue after a few minutes.

"Deal with what?" Haruka asked, surprised.

"You know." Akane said, looking uncomfortable. All the weirdness, the curse, everything." She sighed.

Haruka shrugged. "The weirdness is a bit to get used to, but it's not that bad." She leaned back. "Besides, it would probably get pretty boring without it, I guess. As for the curse…" She laughed. "I sort of started hitting on Ranma when I thought he was a girl."

"What?" Akane asked, shooting up from her laying position. "So you're a…"

"Lesbian, though for Ranma it's… confusing." Haruka answered. Seeing Akane starting to look uncomfortable, she sighed. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hit on you or something." She almost laughed when Akane looked a little more relaxed. "Though you are pretty cute." She did start laughing at the reaction that got.

Akane glared at her for a moment, then started laughing herself. She was still upset, certainly. That would probably not change in the near future, but it seemed slightly distanced, somehow.

"Ohohohohoho!"

"What the hell was that?" Haruka yelled, as the sound of maniacal laughter echoed across the canal.

"Oh no, Kodachi." Akane moaned, slapping a hand to her cheek. Quickly, she regained her feet and looked around to see the insane gymnast standing on the top of the sloping wall that lead down to the shore. "What do you want, Kodachi?" She asked, falling into a fighting stance again.

"Sasuke, my loyal ninja, has informed me that Ranma-sama has finally returned to Nerima, and I intend to go and sweep him off of his feet." Kodachi said, melodramatically.

"So why'd you come and bug me?" Akane asked.

"Because, Akane Dear," Kodachi said, distain dripping from the last two words, "I know that you would naturally interfere. It is time to neutralize that opposition!" Within seconds, the black haired girl had whipped out a ribbon, sending black rose peddles fluttering around the area. While the two were talking, Haruka had been going over what little Ranma had told her about Kodachi without shuddering. About all she knew was that she was a martial arts gymnast, and that she liked to use underhanded tricks like poisons.

As the black rose dove at the youngest Tendo girl, Haruka circled to the side, waiting for an opening. Unfortunately, when she got one about six minutes later, it was because Kodachi had managed to catch Akane in a cloud of some sort of powder that had stopped her from moving.

"Now, Miss Tendo, prepare to die so that my Ranma-Sama shall be by my side always!" Kodachi yelled, swinging a spiked gymnastic club down at Akane's head.

The youngest Tendo, unable to move in order to dodge, closed her eyes in expectation of great pain. A loud crack was heard, but she felt nothing. Tentatively opening her eyes, she saw Kodachi on her back several feet away, and Haruka's leg raised in a high kick. The spiked club was nowhere to be seen, though she heard a distant splash several seconds later.

"You… foul… interloper!" Kodachi snapped as she forced herself to her feet, glairing at Haruka. "How DARE you interrupt my final victory over that witch Tendo?" She didn't wait for Haruka to answer, as she whipped out a ribbon and began swinging.

Haruka made a pretty good fight of it. Kodachi was a little less skilled than Kuno, but unfortunately she was also much more insane, and not as easily distracted. It took some time, but eventually the black rose caught Haruka's arm with her ribbon. Tugging quickly, she heard a satisfying snap as something in the arm gave.

Haruka screamed in pain, clutching her right arm to her chest, and Kodachi took her advantage, while Akane desperately tried to shake off the effects of the paralysis powder she'd been hit with.

Haruka landed next to the water from Kodachi's next strike, dazed. Desperately, she tried to think of something that could save her life. That was when something quite strange happened.

Kodachi stepped back away as a yellow glow seemed to form in the air in front of Haruka, expecting a chi blast. Haruka herself just stared in wonder, as a small gold colored stick seemed to form in midair out of a flash of light. She wasn't sure what was going on, but something deep inside of her called out for her to take the object. Reaching out with her remaining good arm, she grasped the pen-like object, holding it up in front of her eyes. It had a star on the top, with a circle inscribed inside of it. Atop the circle was a cross. "What the hell?" She murmured, before some strange words seemed to pop into her mind.

Kodachi had taken the time that Haruka was spending examining the stick to regain her initiative after no Chi blast had come, and was charging at the blonde again when she held up the transformation pen and called "Uranus Planet Power, Make Up!"

Energy formed around Haruka's body, as she was forced to her feet. The energy was bright yellow-gold, and swirled around the newly transforming Senshi for a brief instant before coalescing into her Uniform. Kodachi had actually been blown back by a wind that emanated from Haruka's body for a brief moment during the process.

"What… what is this?" The black haired girl demanded, gaping.

Uranus shrugged. "Not sure." She flexed her right arm. It twinged in pain, but would actually respond, and the pain wasn't that bad. Also, she could feel a strange power filling her entire body. She felt stronger… a LOT stronger. "But I think I like it."

Kodachi was about to respond, when the newly created Senshi moved, landing a hard punch into her stomach. It wasn't as strong as one of Ryoga or Ranma's usual efforts, but easily topped Akane's, at least when she wasn't powered up by anger Chi. All of the air rushed out of the leotard clad girl's body, as she flew back several feet.

"How DARE you!" The girl screeched, after regaining her breath.

"Leave, now." Uranus snapped.

Kodachi didn't listen, charging for Akane rather than Uranus this time. Instinctively, the blonde found herself bringing a hand down hard onto the ground. "World Shaking!" She bellowed, and a ball of yellow energy slammed into the Gymnast. The Senshi's eyes widened, partially in amazement and partially in horror. "Damn, please tell me I didn't kill her or something." She breathed, rushing over to the tattered and burnt form of Kodachi. She sighed in relief as she saw her chest rising and falling, before turning back to check on Akane.

"You Okay, Akane-san?" She asked, kneeling next to the paralyzed girl.

"Haruka-san, is that you?" Akane gasped, her eyes as wide as they could go. "You… you're a Sailor Senshi?"

"Huh?" Uranus asked, before finally noticing the uniform she was wearing. The battle, and the sensation of power she now felt, had blocked almost everything else from her notice for a short time. "Ack!" She yelped, as she looked down at the short blue skirt, yellow bow and white leotard. "How did I get into this getup?"

Akane just tried to shrug, but found that she couldn't. Luckily, her head could move and she could talk, which was more than you usually got from Kodachi's paralysis powders. "You transformed when you held that yellow pen thing up." She answered. "Didn't you know that was going to happen?"

"No." Uranus answered, honestly, before realizing that Akane still couldn't move. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah." The girl responded. "Ranma says that this stuff usually wears off after a couple of hours, but… could you carry me back to the Dojo?"

Uranus nodded, before picking the other girl up in her arms. She was really surprised how easy it was to do, but guessed that the Senshi outfit amplified strength considerably.

END.

Well, hope you enjoyed. Wow, that was a longun, wasn't it?

Please R&R!


	31. Chapter 31, Akane's Life

Nothing to say here, so I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 31: Akane's Life.

The dark, misty confines of the plain of existence that the Time Gates inhabited echoed with a rather unusual sound. It wasn't a particularly loud one, however the total silence of the chamber made it quite evident. This sound was that of Sailor Pluto, slumped against the side of the time gates, and muttering under her breath.

The time Senshi had known that the time stream was out of her control for a very long time, but had thought that she could plan ahead, using other universes as guides. The problem with this plan had always been evident, that half of the universes that she could see, which wasn't nearly a fraction of the total mass in the infinity of the multiverse, didn't have Senshi in them, and those that did had annoyingly chaotic spots that she couldn't peer through around many of their most important areas.

Even so, most of them had remained un-exploded, so she figured that they weren't dealing with what she currently was. That being, the possible re-awakening of Sailor Saturn.

This blew the threat of the extra-dimensional being that she was relatively sure was preparing to invade out of the water. She would have to try and plan for the eventuality of finding and getting rid of the person who was going to awaken as Saturn, though the thought sickened her, and… Her thoughts stopped dead as she felt a resonant ripple in the time stream. Something important had happened.

Dragging herself up from the mumbling heap that had been leaning against the side of the gates she guarded, the 'mistress of the time gates' walked in front of them and gazed in, willing them to focus on what had caused the disturbance. Once the ripples faded from the view, she sighed and shook her head. At this point, she got the distinct impression that planning based on information from other timelines wouldn't help one bit. Granted, Uranus had only awoken one day ahead of time, but this had come completely out of left field. Shaking her head, the time Senshi closed the gates and willed herself into her bedroom. Disengaging the transformation, she fell onto her bed. "I'll contact them tomorrow." She decided, drifting off to sleep.

HR.

Ranma glared down at the unconscious forms of two old fools for a second, before brushing his hands off on his black Chinese pants. Turning, he winced as he saw Nabiki Tendo looking at him steadily. He quickly checked, but realized that, aside from a Shogi that had been knocked off of its track, he hadn't done all that much damage. That had been mostly because he'd gotten Mr. Tendo early with a quick strike to the jaw, and Genma was too badly injured to really cut loose. Distantly, he wondered how that had happened before a metaphorical coin dropped in his mind. "Akane!" He realized, headed for the door.

"Stop right there, Ranma." Came Nabiki's voice, causing the pigtailed martial artist to come to a screeching halt.

"Nabiki?" He asked, looking back at the middle Tendo in surprise.

"Is that person who went after Akane trustworthy?" Nabiki asked, looking at him levelly. She normally wouldn't trust Ranma's opinion of people, but it seemed that he knew the girl well.

"Wadda ya mean, Nabiki?" Ranma asked, confused. "Haruka's not gunna hurt Akane or anything, if that's what ya mean, but I should really go check on her." He started for the door again, only to be stopped by Nabiki's upraised hand.

"I think, at least until she calms down a little, you are the last thing Akane needs to see, and I have something to talk to you about in the meantime." She explained, starting to walk towards the stairs to the second floor. Ranma looked confused for a moment, before realizing that anything Nabiki wanted to talk to him about would probably be best discussed away from the fathers, even if they were unconscious.

HR.

"Okay, what is it, Nabiki?" Ranma asked, as the brown haired girl's bedroom door closed behind the two.

Nabiki told him. He looked at her in astonishment for a few moments, before she broke the silence. "Look, I don't know much about the more advanced forms of martial arts, so answer me. Can she do it?" She asked, referencing the plan that she'd outlined.

"I… think so, if your ol' man'd go along with it." Ranma said, uncertainly.

"He will." Nabiki replied, smugly. "He thinks that he has some honor as a practitioner of the Tendo school, and with the grand master there to make threats about throwing him out of the anything goes, he'll have to, right?"

"I don't…" Ranma started, uncertainly.

"Look, Happosai kept both of them in line for years on his training trip and in this house, are you honestly telling me that you can't do the same?" Nabiki asked, smirking at the boy in front of her. To her surprise, he didn't immediately respond with a prideful challenge. 'Maybe you're growing up, Saotome.' She thought, but didn't say it aloud.

Ranma continued to think for a few more seconds before reluctantly nodding. "I can do it." He said, nodding more affirmatively the next time. "I just don't know if she'll go along with it."

"Good." Nabiki said, nodding. "Now, I think my sister has had enough time to calm down."

"Yeah, sure." Ranma responded, before turning and reaching for the door handle.

"Oh, Ranma?" Nabiki started, stopping him for a moment. "Thank you."

Ranma just nodded slightly, opening the door and leaving. He was actually rather unsure of how to take that.

HR.

Ranma was worried. His conversation with Nabiki had taken a while, and he was kicking himself for not just ignoring the girl and running to find Akane immediately.

As he turned the corner that lead to the canal, which had been the second place he'd gone to check, he saw something that made him blink several times. Akane was there, being carried up the hill to the street by a Sailor Senshi in full costume. "Hey, Akane!" He called, drawing the attention of both of them.

As the blonde Senshi noticed him, she began to head towards him as quickly as possible.

"Are you all right?" He asked, as the two came into easy talking range.

"I'm fine, Ranma." Akane said, then winced. "Well, I'll be fine as soon as Kodachi's paralysis gas wears off."

"Kodachi?" Ranma asked, looking around worriedly.

"It's all right, Haruka-san got rid of her." Akane continued. At the moment, she was too annoyed and amazed to be sad about seeing Ranma again.

"Haruka? Where is she?" Ranma asked, still looking around, now concerned and confused.

"I'm right here, don't you recognize me?" Uranus asked, annoyed. She knew that she looked different in this stupid sailor suit, and she didn't really want to be seen by many people in it, but Ranma pretending that he didn't notice her was a bit much.

Ranma's head immediately snapped around, looking at Uranus. "You're…" He stuttered, his eyes widening.

"Haruka." Uranus said, slowly, wondering what Ranma's problem was.

Ranma gaped for a few more moments, before shaking his head in disbelief. "I'm gunna have ta talk to ya about somethin later." He muttered, eliciting a raised eyebrow from both Uranus and Akane. "Let's get back ta Akane's place, and don't tell anyone else yer Haruka."

"I think only Ryoga would be fooled by that disguise." Akane said, dubiously, as she looked up to Haruka's face, its only adornment being the gold tiara.

"The Senshi use some kinda disguise magic to make sure people don't know their identities." Ranma explained. After saying this, he immediately felt like kicking himself for letting something like that slip in front of Akane.

Instantly, the inevitable question came. "How do you know that?" Akane asked, curiously.

"I met a few of the Senshi in Minato." Ranma explained, lamely, before turning back to the Tendo compound. "C'mon, let's get back ta Akane's place."

Uranus nodded, though Akane's eyes narrowed. The Senshi was obviously still a little too shocked to figure out that anything was wrong, but it was obvious to her that Ranma had been lying when he made his last statement.

The group proceeded in a nervous silence until about a block away from the Tendo place, where Uranus stopped dead. "I just thought of something." She said. "I don't think it would be a good idea for a Sailor Senshi to come walking into Akane's family's house."

Akane laughed. "A lot weirder has happened." She said, but then she frowned. "Though I bet Nabiki would probably guess your identity pretty fast if you came back with us, magic protection or not."

"Damn. I wish I knew how to get out of this thing." Uranus said, looking down at her uniform. Annoyed, she tapped the crystal broach in the middle of the bow on her chest with her right hand, whose arm was supporting Akane's legs. Abruptly, the Senshi outfit faded away, revealing her street clothes. Unfortunately, without the outfit, Haruka's ability to carry Akane's entire dead weight vanished as well, and the two girls fell in a mass of tangled limbs.

"Ouch." The blonde mumbled, from where Akane was laying on her face. Ranma immediately reached down, scooping the youngest Tendo daughter into his arms, and allowing Haruka to regain her feet.

For a moment, Akane let herself believe that things were back to the way they had been before Ranma had left. Something stupid had just happened, and he had swooped in to rescue her. Oddly, her usual reaction of struggling to get released didn't even come to mind, even if she could have moved.

"Well, I guess I know how to transform back." Haruka commented, looking at Akane a little worriedly. That expression on her face was a little worrying, though Ranma didn't seem to notice.

HR.

Nabiki's eyebrow shot up as Ranma and Haruka entered the house, Akane held securely in Ranma's arms. Her father had woken up and was sitting in one corner of the room nursing his wounds, but quickly perked up as he saw them. "Ranma has come back to my Akane!" He yelled, joyfully.

Ranma and Akane both opened their mouths to deny this, when they were both shocked by Nabiki's response. "Oh just shut up, daddy." The middle daughter growled. "What happened to you, Akane?"

Akane grimaced. "Kodachi attacked. She didn't do much damage before…" She trailed off.

"Before what?" Nabiki asked.

"Before Haruka and I showed up." Ranma supplied.

Nabiki knew that there was something more to the events, but now wasn't the time to worry about that. "Can you take Akane up to her room, Ranma?"

"Yeah." The pigtailed boy said, heading for the stairs.

After the two had disappeared upstairs, Nabiki flopped down on a cushion next to the dining table. "You trust Ranma an awful lot, letting him go up there with Akane and all." She said, impressed that Haruka didn't seem bothered by what her own sister would have been flipping her lid over.

Haruka just shrugged. "Is there any reason to be?" She asked. "She's his old girlfriend, and yeah, I think they still probably like each other a little, but if Ranma actually wants to go back to Akane rather than staying with me," She shrugged, though Nabiki could detect more than a little regret in her eyes. "We've just been dating." She didn't mention the engagement, since it seemed that being engaged to Ranma was a rather common occurrence in this area. Of course, she forgot to factor in that he'd actually asked her.

"That's a very mature attitude to have." Nabiki said, surprised. "Though you are lying through your teeth about it not bothering you." Seeing Haruka twitch, she chuckled a bit, though she honestly couldn't see Ranma and Akane getting back together. "Want to play some Go to pass the time?"

HR.

Kicking open Akane's door, which had apparently been left ajar at some point earlier, Ranma set her down on the bed and took a chair next to her. "Can you move anything other than your head or neck?" He asked.

"Yeah, I think I'm getting feeling back in my fingers." Akane replied, before the two fell silent. Ranma just sat there, watching and unsure of what to say, and she returned his look. He was the first one to break, as his eyes turned to her window, staring out into the neighborhood that had been his home for longer than anywhere else that he could remember.

"Ranma?" Akane asked, a few seconds later.

"Yeah?" The boy responded.

"Why did you go?" The girl said, asking one question that had been bothering her for almost the entire time that Ranma had been gone. "I mean, I know you left after asking me about your curse, but that couldn't have been the only reason you just.. left."

Ranma sighed, reluctantly returning his eyes to his former fiancée. "Nah, that wasn't why I left." He said. "No matter what you'd said to that, I woulda left Nerima."

"But…" Akane started, her eyes widening.

"I woulda left, but I asked ya that question ta see if you wanted ta come with me."

Ranma's statement hit Akane hard, but it also kind of made her angry. "What kind of question was that to ask if you were trying to see if I wanted to come with you, Baka?" She demanded, wanting to hit Ranma, if only her arms could do more than twitch.

Ranma rubbed at his temples. He'd known that talking to Akane again would be hard, and explaining this as the first step wasn't his idea of fun. "Akane, the curse is, honestly, one of the more normal things about my life." He laughed a little, then shook it off. "I mean, coupled with having people out for my blood, fighting demons and such, and having ta move around on the road for however long it took for me ta find a place to live, turnin into a girl with cold water's kinda miner, ya know? I just…" He stopped.

"You just what, Ranma?" Akane asked.

"I just saw your reaction ta that, and I figured that you wouldn't be happy with the kinda life you'd get if ya left with me." Ranma explained, his head down.

Akane wanted to retort with something immediately, but it caught in her throat. Was she supposed to say that she could have taken it, or denied that she would ever want to? Even through all of the sadness of living here after Ranma had left, there had still been a determined portion of her mind that screamed that she did NOT love that jerk, and that she was glad that he and his insanity were gone. Actually, she had been glad that the insanity had left in general, even while missing the boy himself. "I… I guess it never would have worked with us, would it?" She asked, her voice shaking.

"I dunno." Ranma said, shaking his head sadly. "If things had turned out different, if all the crazy stuff didn't happen around here, maybe it coulda worked."

Akane nodded slightly, her eyes glimmering with tears that she refused to let go. "So, why did you come here again? I mean you knew that our fathers would jump on you the second you walked in, so I doubt it was for a visit." She said, trying to change the subject.

Ranma sighed. "I've been given grand mastery of the Anything Goes school." He said, though he didn't sound particularly happy about it.

Akane shot up sluggishly, realizing that her body was responding to her again somewhat as she looked at the boy sitting on her desk chair in astonishment. "You what?"

"Grand Master Happosai died a couple of days ago, and passed the mastery of the school on to me, so I had to come here, pick up his scrolls and deal with the old men."

"Deal with the old men?" Akane asked, confused. "You aren't going to do anything to dad, are you?" Granted, she wasn't happy with her father at the moment, but she would deal with that herself.

Ranma shrugged. "I pretty well have to, don't I? I mean he hasn't taught anyone for almost eight years, and I've given you as much training as he has."

"Hey!" Akane objected. "Dad taught me the basics of the art, and all you did was keep dodging me and refusing to fight me for real!"

Ranma winced, though he was also glad. Nabiki had told him of how Akane had been acting, and he was glad that he'd gotten her back to something close to normal, even if she was yelling at him. "Akane, I've been teaching you ever since I got here. Are you telling me that you haven't noticed your speed and coordination improvement since you started sparrin with me?"

Akane was about to respond harshly, when she stopped and thought about it. With all of the super-powered martial artists around it was hard to tell, but she had noticed while fighting Kuno for those few weeks before he'd left the area that she'd been beating him more quickly and efficiently than she had during the hentai horde assaults before Ranma had come. "All right." She finally grumbled, "but you didn't answer my question, what are you going to do with Dad?"

"Well, Nabiki gave me an idea." Ranma explained, telling said idea to the youngest Tendo. She objected at first, but he explained away each doubt the same way that Nabiki had.

HR.

Haruka studied her opponent carefully, before reaching out onto the grid-like game board and slapping her white stone down on an intersection. As her opponent considered her move, they both heard the sound of people coming down the stares. Looking up, Haruka saw that they were Ranma and Akane. Ranma looked relieved, and Akane's expression was hard to read. The most noticeable feature of the youngest Tendo was that she had changed out of her blue school dress into a yellow martial arts Gi.

Haruka's opponent just smiled ever-so slightly, placing her black stone on the board and mumbling "Just as I planned."

The blonde wasn't sure what she was talking about, since she actually had a slight advantage on the board at the moment, until Akane spoke up. "Where's Dad?"

"He's in the first floor guest room, taking care of Mr. Saotome." Nabiki answered. "Seems Ranma hit the old panda a bit too hard."

Akane nodded and headed for the guest room, former residence of Happosai. Ranma and Nabiki followed, so Haruka just shrugged and joined them.

As the blue-black haired girl entered the room, Soun Tendo was laying a cold compress on his best friend's forehead. "Akane-chan, what is it?" He asked, not seeing the crowd behind her.

"Father." Akane started, surprising the older man with her formality. "I challenge you for mastery of the Tendo school of anything goes martial arts."

Soun just stood there, stunned for several seconds. "You… you what?" He asked, one hand clenching around the cloth that was still held there.

"You heard the challenge, father. Will you accept?" Akane asked, resolutely. There were butterflies fluttering around inside of her stomach, however her gaze was unwavering.

Soun started to rev up for his usual crying technique, when Ranma stepped in past Akane. "Tendo-san, I'd suggest you answer the question. You are aware that, unless you can provide a good reason, declining a challenge from a student is a dishonor in the anything goes school."

Failing at his crying tactic, Soun switched to righteous anger. "Ranma, just because the master died and gave you some piece of paper, how dare you claim to be in authority over your respected elders! How dare you give my baby girl such ideas as challenging me for the school!" He boomed.

Ranma was about to say something, when Akane slapped her father in the face. "I challenged you, NOT Ranma, now do you accept or not?" She demanded, her face coming as close to his as it could given their dramatically different heights.

Soun didn't really know how to respond for a moment, before his face turned red and he spat, "Yes, I accept. I assume that I am allowed to dictate the date and time?"

Akane wanted to flinch at the hurt and betrayal in her father's voice, but Ranma and Nabiki had been right. The Tendo school had done a grand total of nothing in the past eight years, and her father had no intention to start doing anything now. Ranma had originally intended to challenge him himself, but Nabiki had suggested the alternative, so the Dojo remained in the family, and Akane was grateful for that. "Yes, you are allowed to set the date and time." She said, though she had kind of been hoping that he would get it over with today, even though she was feeling a little woozy.

"Next Saturday, in this family's Dojo, I will accept your challenge." Mr. Tendo said, stiffly stalking from the room. In the cot on the ground, Genma continued to snore in the bliss of unconsciousness.

HR.

About ten minutes later, Ranma was standing on the sidewalk outside of the Tendo compound's front gates, Haruka standing to one side. Over one shoulder he held a bag containing a lot of Happosai's possessions, with the exception of the huge pile of panties that Kasumi had had thrown out when the old man had left. Nabiki was still inside the house, but Akane had walked with them to the door.

"Goodbye, Ranma." The youngest Tendo said, slightly sadly.

"Bye, Akane." Ranma replied. "I hope you won't have any trouble living with your old man for the next week after the challenge thing." He commented, worriedly.

"Don't worry, I'll probably sleep at Yuka's place." The girl answered, before surprising Ranma and giving him a hug.

"Ack!" The boy yelled, and Haruka's eye gave a visible twitch. "Akane, what are you doing?" He demanded.

"Relax." Akane responded. "I'm just saying goodbye to a friend, at least until next week."

Ranma wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Goodbye Haruka-san, and thanks for your help today." Akane said, turning to the blonde haired cross dresser. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about what happened during your fight with Kodachi." She continued, in a whisper.

Haruka simply nodded, before the two got into her car. As the vehicle made its way down the street and out of the district, both of them had a lot on their minds. For Ranma, it was mostly about the next week's return to Nerima, to possibly settle at least part of the issue of the schools for ever.

Haruka's thoughts were focused elsewhere, however, mostly pertaining to a strange golden stick and the transformation it had caused in her during the fight with Kodachi.

END.

For those who are going to say what I know you're going to say, Next chapter will have a lot more to do with Haruka's transformation into Uranus. Sorry, but this one pretty well NEEDED to be used to temporarily wrap up the Tendo mess.

Thank you, good night, and don't forget to R&R!


	32. Chapter 32, Secrets? Who needs 'em!

Hi everybody! Well, here's chapter 32. A bit of a calm before the storm, but a nice little chapter in itself. Hope you enjoy, and please R&R!

Chapter 32, Secrets? Who needs 'em!

Akane Tendo watched as the small yellow sports car turned the corner and vanished into the narrow streets of Nerima, turning back to the Tendo compound. She took a deep breath, before walking through the front gates and up to the steps. To her relief, her father was nowhere to be found. "He's probably tending to Mr. Saotome." She muttered, entering and walking up to her room. For the next week, she thought that it would be a little uncomfortable to stay around the Dojo.

She'd left to train before, particularly when Natsume and Kurumi showed up to lay claim to the home. Still, this time she would need special training. Ranma had seemed pretty confident that she would be able to beat her father, but she wasn't sure.

After packing several school uniforms and her favorite set of training weights into a bag, the youngest Tendo slung it over one shoulder and headed for her door. She was stopped by her middle sister, who looked at her levelly. "Nabiki?" She asked, confused.

"Good luck, sis." Nabiki said, casually, before walking up and hugging Akane. The blue-black haired martial artist blinked. This sort of action was definitely different for Nabiki. As the older Tendo sister pulled back, Akane felt a strange sensation near one of her Gi's pockets. "You should probably get going." Nabiki said, pointing down. "Daddy looked kind of pissed when I walked past the guest room."

"Thanks." Akane said, unsure how to react. "I'll see you in a week."

Nabiki simply nodded.

HR

The ride home from Nerima was quiet, and Haruka kept her eyes on the road as best she could. What had happened today had overshadowed even what had been coming into her life since she'd left her home and met Ranma, and her mind was conflicted about it. Unlike the martial artist, she didn't particularly object to having her power increased by a magical talisman, especially since it had resulted in her being able to save that Tendo girl, but the Senshi uniform had been beyond embarrassing, and Ranma had seemed to know far too much about what had happened to her. Distantly, some part of her mind set up a flag that it was very odd that Ranma would know about the Senshi's disguise ability, but she dismissed it since not much about Ranma wasn't strange, and turned the small car smoothly onto one of the artery-like roads that ran between Tokyo's major districts.

When the vehicle was safely on the highway, the blonde took her attention off of the road for long enough to glance over at her passenger. Ranma was just gazing out the window, but a sense of tension that had been visible in his shoulders since the death of Happosai seemed to have been drained, and then some. Having gone and actually resolved his situation with Akane had apparently done him a world of good. She was about to turn back to the road, when Ranma's eyes met hers, and the two caught for a moment.

He looked distinctly startled, but she simply smirked amusedly and turned away.

HR.

Ami stood outside of Ucchan's Okonomiyaki, looking into the window as the young waiter dashed around bringing food to the tables. Rei had been right, and had told her where to find Konatsu. Usagi had asked her to try and find out as much a she could about the odd goings on surrounding her cram school, including Ranma and the new Senshi, and this was the first person she could think of to consult.

Taking a deep breath, the young Senshi entered the shop.

HR.

Ukyo Kuonji smiled as she flipped a cooking Okonomiyaki, catching it on her spatula. "Order's up!" she called, flinging the finished food into the air again and half-way across the restaurant. Konatsu immediately bounded into the air, catching the food on a plate he had been carrying, and sliding it onto the table in front of one of the restaurant's customers.

The middle-aged man clapped as the young Kimono clad waitress walked off towards the serving counter.

"It's good to have you back, Konatsu." Ukyo said, smiling as she slung the battle spatula she'd just used over her shoulder and into place on her back. She was wearing her usual Okonomiyaki seller's blue uniform, her hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Thank you, Ukyo-san." Konatsu said, bowing his head.

Ukyo's smile got larger at that remark. The young waiter had returned to his usual garb when he'd gotten dressed this morning, however his formerly overly-respectful speech habits had noticeably toned themselves down, and she'd seen several more masculine outfits when she'd helped him move his things back into his room the night before. Seeing another hand in the back of the restaurant signaling for its order to be filled, she pointed and the male Kunoichi quickly nodded, bounding off to do his duty.

As Konatsu was half way across the room, the front door opened and a girl entered. She had short, blue-black hair similar to Akane Tendo's, and was wearing what looked like a junior high school uniform.

The girl walked towards the counter, settling down there casually.

"Can I help you, sugar?" Ukyo asked, gliding over to her with a pleasant look on her face.

"A… Actually," the girl began, "I'm here to talk to Konatsu-kun."

Ukyo's eyebrows shot up at that statement, looking the girl over more carefully. She had a similar looking outfit to that the blonde that had been following her and Konatsu on their date had been wearing the day before. "You wouldn't happen to be Rei Hino, would you?" She hazarded, remembering that a girl by that name had sheltered Konatsu during his time away from the shop.

"No, my name is Ami Mizuno. Rei is one of my friends." The girl said, surprised. "Do you know her?"

"No, Konatsu just mentioned her. Hold on, I'll call him over." Ukyo answered, then signaled the Kimono clad waiter to return to the counter.

"What is wrong, Ukyo-san?" Konatsu asked, as he reached the counter. Seeing Ami, his eyes widened slightly. "Greetings, Mizuno-san."

"Hello, Konatsu." Ami said, looking between the young man and the Okonomiyaki chef. Deciding to be straight forward, she continued. "I came to ask you a few questions."

Konatsu frowned for a moment, and then looked to Ukyo for confirmation. The brown haired woman just looked back, shrugging. "I assume that you would like to talk in private, Mizuno-san?" Konatsu asked.

At Ami's nod, the two proceeded out of the main restaurant and into the Kunoichi's back room, leaving Ukyo rather bemused.

HR.

Ami was about to say something, when Konatsu silenced her and began looking around the room carefully. She was about to ask what was wrong, when he stopped his observation. Seeing her questioning look, he shrugged. "It is always a good idea to make sure you're unobserved." He explained, shortly.

Ami didn't know how to take that, looking at the ninja in astonishment before recomposing herself. "Um, right." She said, before continuing. "I came here to ask you a few questions."

"What about?" Konatsu asked, openly curious. "You know that I won't answer any questions about Ukyo-sama."

"It's not about Ukyo." Ami responded, before slipping her mercury computer out of her pocket. She tapped on the display for a moment, and then held it up. "Do you recognize this person?"

The ninja leaned in close to the screen, studying the image intently. It was a still frame of some sort of monster, though he doubted that it was what Ami was referring to. There was a short, red haired girl in the corner of the frame, rolling away and apparently out of harm's way. "Why do you need this information?" He asked, cautiously. He knew that Ranma had hurt Ukyo recently, but also that his mistress still cared for the boy and that Ranma had also helped to free him from his step-family.

Ami furtively looked around the room in a similar manor to how Konatsu had earlier, before responding. "It has to do with the Senshi." She said, seeing no point in lying. Konatsu had promised not to tell anyone about their group unless they threatened his mistress, and if he knew something, which it seemed like he did from his reaction, the trade-off may be worth it.

Konatsu studied the picture for a few more seconds, seemingly making a decision, before speaking up. "This is Ranma-san, in his cursed form."

Ami blinked. "What?" She asked, though she could vaguely remember Konatsu mentioning something about Ranma being cursed before Minako had gotten him to tell her his story and the meeting he'd taken part in had gotten derailed. As the Ninja told her what he knew about Jusenkyo and its curses, her eyes widened.

HR.

Haruka was startled out of a relaxed state as the car drifted through the outskirts of Minato when Ranma spoke up. "Could we stop here?" He asked, pointing to a vacant lot.

Haruka just shrugged, pulling the car to a stop by the side of the road and turning the engine off. She became curious and slightly worried as Ranma exited the car, walking into the lot, and quickly followed him. "Ranma, what's wrong?" She asked, glancing around to see that the area they were standing in was deserted.

Ranma scuffed his feet nervously for a minute before sighing. "I'd like ya ta hear me out before sayin anything, all right?" He asked, softly.

Haruka looked at him oddly. "Of course I will. Ranma, what's wrong?" She asked, her nervousness growing.

"Look, I've been thinkin. All my life, especially in Nerima, I tried keepin stuff secret from people I hung 'round with, and it usually came 'n bit me in the end." Ranma explained, looking off and blushing a bit in memory of something. "With what happened today, I kinda figured I should tell ya somethin."

Haruka's heart sank as she thought of what Ranma could possibly be preparing to say. She had thought that he and Akane had parted on rather good terms considering the fact that he'd apparently walked out on her two months ago. "I see." She said, softly. She really couldn't blame him. Akane was cute, she knew that, and he'd apparently loved her for years.

"You know?" Ranma asked, surprised.

"Yeah." Haruka continued, turning away and looking at the sky above them. "I guess she's lucky." She said, trying not to let her voice catch noticibly.

"Huh? What the heck 'r ya talkin about?" Ranma asked, now totally confused.

"You and Akane have made up, right?" Haruka asked, evenly.

"Wha?" Ranma sputtered, before shaking his head. "No, that ain't it at all! Well, we did make up, but not like that!" He yelled, shocked.

"Then… what is it?" Haruka asked, looking at him intently.

Ranma didn't quite know what to say, especially since he'd apparently blown what was supposed to be a gentle introduction, so he just shrugged and withdrew the Neptune transformation pen from his pocket. He let his Chi reach out for a few seconds, verifying that there was no one who could see either of them in the area, and then held the device up. "Neptune planet power, make up!" He called, and the water column smashed down around him, revealing the redhead in the blue and green sailor fuku.

Haruka just gaped for a second. "You…" She stuttered, her mouth opening and closing rapidly a few times. "You idiot!"

Neptune flinched, expecting a blow, but was surprised when the taller woman ran at her and hugged her tightly. "Wha?" She asked, irking as Haruka squeezed her. The pressure didn't actually effect her, especially since the Senshi power provided her a sort of external force-field for protection, but the action was completely unexpected.

It took Haruka a few seconds to recompose herself, before she pulled away. "I… I thought that you were getting prepared to tell me that you wanted to go back to Nerima or something. I…" She trailed off, looking away. She had refused to admit that she had been worried all day about losing Ranma to his or her previous fiancée.

Neptune walked over to her blonde haired companion, putting an arm on the taller girl's shoulder. "Haruka, I couldn't go back to Akane if I wanted to." She said, before walking in front of the blonde and tilting her head up to look into her eyes. "And I don't want to."

Haruka looked down into the red-head's bright blue eyes and couldn't help but smile as she saw the mixture of love and worry in them. "Thank you, Ranma." She breathed, drawing the smaller girl close again. "So, you're a Senshi too, huh?" She asked, after the two had been standing like that for a few minutes.

Neptune nodded. "Sailor Neptune." She confirmed. "And please don't call me Ranma like this. Like I said, the Senshi forms make it really hard for people to recognize us."

Haruka frowned as she looked Ranma over. "Other than the fact that you're really cute in that outfit, I can recognize you pretty well." She smirked, causing the redhead to glare at her and quickly transform back to civilian form.

"I think it only works if the other person doesn't know you're the Senshi." Ranma explained, settling her Chinese clothes onto her female form. One of the problems with transforming from male to Senshi form was that the clothes always got pretty badly wrinkled when she changed back. Suddenly, she smirked evilly. "Plus, you looked pretty good in the uniform, too."

Haruka blushed and looked down. "That wasn't funny." She grumped.

"So what, you can admire me, but I can't return the favor?" Ranma asked, finding a weak spot in the blonde's armor. Since Haruka was usually the one who could jab her about her own social shortcomings, the payback was nice.

Haruka just grumbled more as they headed back to the car. As they settled in and she started the engine, she looked over at Ranma and asked a question. "So, what do we do?"

"Huh?" The shorter girl asked, looking back in confusion as she buckled her own seatbelt.

"Well, We're these Sailor Senshi, and we've got these magic powers and these stupid uniforms, so what do we do with them?" Haruka clarified, shifting the car into gear and proceeding to drive it down the street towards Setsuna's house.

Ranma shrugged. "We do what I've been doin with my martial arts whenever I got the chance even before becomin a Senshi. We protect the weak." She said, simply. "Or at least I do. I could understand if ya don't wanna do it."

Haruka snorted. "I don't really like the outfit, but if you're doing it and I can help, count me in." She said, adamantly.

Ranma sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Kinda figured." She muttered, sourly.

HR.

The man groaned softly as his entire body informed him that it had been beaten severely. Cracking his eyes open, he winced as the florescent lights overhead caused him to immediately shut them again. He then opened them again, much more slowly, allowing them to adjust to the light. Once they were finally open, he saw a hospital room all around him. Tilting his head very slowly to avoid a massive headache, he noticed that his arms and legs were both held in light casts, and there was pressure tape around his torso.

Letting his mind range back across the last few moments of consciousness he could remember, he once again saw a glowing force of destruction beating the crap out of him. Ukyo hadn't been joking when she'd said that Ranma Saotome was stronger than she was. Was that the monster he'd sent his daughter after?

Perhaps, Akira mused, he should have taken up his honor promise with the boy's father. Also, he definitely owed his daughter an apology, if she would listen to him long enough to hear it.

END.


	33. Chapter 33, Nodoka's Sunday

I can't think of any comments to put here, or at least not any that wouldn't make me look like an idiot, so... Here's the chapter. Enjoy.

Chapter 33, Nodoka's Sunday.

Nodoka, formerly of the Saotome clan, looked up at the gates to the country mansion with a look on her face that seemed to combine nostalgic memories with a sense of dread. It had taken a couple of hours for her to take the trains and busses out to this remote prefecture, but she had turned down an offer from Haruka to drive her there. It would have inconvenienced the younger woman a great deal, and Nodoka had wanted to do this alone.

Looking back briefly at the street that she'd just walked down, the auburn haired woman walked resolutely towards the gates and pushed a call button on one side.

HR.

Ranma briefly looked back towards Setsuna's house as she and Haruka streaked down the street away from it on the blonde's motorcycle. Feeling the squirming of the passenger on the back, the blonde turned just enough to one side to allow one of her eyes to peer at the redhead through her helmet. "You alright?" She called, raising her voice over the sound of the running engine.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ranma said, before shaking her head. "Ya think Aunt Nodoka's gunna be all right?"

Haruka sighed. She'd figured that this was what Ranma had been thinking about. Nodoka had been nervous all morning, even when talking to Setsuna and having tea earlier.

Unfortunately, she wasn't sure what to tell Ranma. She'd actually met Nodoka's parents once, when they were having a business meeting with her father in his living room. She hadn't realized it until she'd heard that the older woman's name was originally Nodoka Himura. The looks they had given Haruka when she'd walked into the room wearing a set of biking clothes by accident still made her shiver.

'Good luck, Nodoka-san.' She thought, as the bike made a turn onto a highway that let her open up the throttle a bit more than she was allowed to in a residential area. Taking advantage of this, she increased speed rapidly and felt the gratifying sensation of Ranma clutching at her for dear life.

HR.

After Haruka's bike had decelerated to a stop in the parking lot of the track that she was supposed to race at today, Ranma hopped off the back, visibly annoyed. "Did ya have ta pull it so close?" She demanded, referring to an incident with a trailer truck near the entrance.

"What, did I scare you?" Haruka asked, smirking.

The redhead sputtered. "I wasn't scared, it was just a stupid risk." She announced, glairing.

Haruka's smirk got wider, before she draped one arm over the shorter girl's shoulder. "C'mon, you were scared. Admit it." She prodded.

Ranma just sniffed in irritation, trying to look as annoyed as possible. Unfortunately, that annoyance ended up just making her look cute, and the blonde leaned over, kissing her.

"Hey, I'm tryin ta be angry here!" Ranma complained, though she now found herself smiling.

"Too bad." Haruka said, before an announcement came over the PA system of the track, calling for her to report to the maintenance area with her bike.

HR.

Nodoka looked around the small home office, surprised. Her parents' house had always been very strictly Japanese, and the oak paneled walls, padded chairs and almost waist height desk were very American or European additions.

The woman took her attention off of the décor as she heard the door in the corner of the room opening, admitting the form of a middle-aged looking man with hair of a similar color to her own. She knew that he only looked middle-aged, as he was her own father and was currently about 57.

He sat at the desk, and began rummaging through several stacks of paper on its top. Nodoka knew better than to draw attention until after he was done. Since her chair was close to the front of the desk, she caught a glimpse of many of the papers he was moving. Several of them had little or nothing to do with her, but she saw one that had a mug-shot of Genma along with a set of statistics, and what appeared to be a set of school records for Ranma.

"So, you have returned, Nodoka?" The man said, after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence.

Nodoka was taken aback. There wasn't an honorific on the end of her name. That could mean one of two things. Either he was being very casual or very disrespectful. Given what she remembered of her father, she was going with the latter. Deciding not to return insult for insult, she nodded. "Yes I have, Himura-sama." She said, politely.

The man looked at her quizzically for a moment. "You believe that I will allow you to regain the name and honor of the Himura family. That is why you came here, correct?"

Nodoka wanted to shift nervously, however she suppressed it as best she could. "That is correct, Himura-sama." She stated.

"Why?" The old man demanded, but then continued to speak before Nodoka could open her mouth. "You see, I've done research on the family you were previously a part of, and your actions in it." Nodoka wanted to speak up, but he kept right on going. "I saw your husband, a dishonorable coward who practiced a martial art lead by the most perverted and vile man on the home islands."

"Genma Saotome is not my husband any longer, and I had no idea of what he was doing while he was away from me." Nodoka objected, but was cut off when her father continued.

"Yes, divorce. Not entirely honorable, is it?" He commented, before continuing. "As for your son, a boy who barely made passing grades in school, studies the same art, and has some… deviant… cross-dressing habits."

Nodoka couldn't restrain herself after this comment. "Ranma is doing his best to pursue honor even with his art, and the curse is not his fault!" She called, before realizing what she had done. She stopped dead for a moment, realizing that she'd just over-stepped her bounds, and then shrugged. She'd blown it, might as well continue. "As for divorcing Genma, would you have preferred me continue associating with him, or maybe chop his head off in a seppuku ceremony? Well, I almost did, and that is precisely why I can never refer to my son as son again!"

The man on the other side of the desk stopped for a moment, looking curiously at the immensely angry woman in the chair across from him. What he did next was a complete surprise to her. He began to clap.

"Wh… what?" Nodoka asked, confused.

"Congratulations, Nodoka." The man said, his stony face breaking into a smile. "You defended yourself admirably, and finally displayed some character, rather than just slavishly devoting yourself to honor."

"But…" Nodoka sputtered, still not knowing what was going on. "You always drilled me on the proper ways of acting, and you were always insistent on maintaining proper protocol."

"Of course. Honor and protocol are important, however there are situations where they must be discarded for what you believe, even if it seems, or indeed is, incorrect." The man stated. "We did not cut off ties with you because you married Genma Saotome all those years ago, we did so because you slunk off in the middle of the night to do so rather than confronting me or your mother and telling us what you were going to do. That is not the way a member of our family would do things."

Nodoka sat there, shocked. Her father looked at her, as if he was expecting relief, or happiness, or… anything, but she just sat there. In her mind many thoughts swirled around each other. The first was, 'This was a test?' That bounced around a few times, until it smacked into another thought. "You aren't acting very manly, Ranma.' For some reason, those two thoughts locked together in her mind. The implications of the first were so much like the second, so much like the way she'd been treating her son ever since she found out about his curse, that it made her head spin.

Nodoka very slowly stood from her chair, and started to turn away. "Where are you going, Nodoka?" The man at the desk asked, curiously.

The former Saotome turned back towards him. "I'm leaving, Mr. Himura." She responded, before remembering something. Withdrawing the shinai that Akane had given her when she'd left the Tendo home, she slapped it down on his desk.

He wouldn't understand what it meant, but she did. She had known that her family had a great tradition of fighting with the sword, ever since one of them had been one of the main figures in the Meiji restoration. She had always carried a blade, even though she didn't know how to use it, in order to honor that past. Placing her blade on the table and walking away, leaving the man that she would have been glad to call father again behind, she walked out of the room, down the hall and out of the house.

It wasn't until she was outside that she let her emotions free, a sort of horrible combination of tears and anger that kept her from raising her face as she left the grounds.

"Nodoka-san, are you alright?" Came a shocked and surprised voice from in-front of her. Looking up, the auburn haired woman saw Setsuna Meiou standing next to a black car.

"Setsuna-san, why are you here?" Nodoka asked, quickly wiping the tears from her eyes and trying to regain composure.

"You said that you would be done at around 1:30, so I thought I would come and pick you up." Setsuna said. "Now what's wrong?" As she asked Nodoka this, the green haired woman lead her to the passenger seat of the black car and walked around to the driver's side.

HR.

Kaolinite crept through the dark corners of the automotive shop that was built into a racing track at the edge of Tokyo, grumbling under her breath. She had to test the latest permutation of the Daimon Eggs, and Dr. Tomoe had refused to let her select a student from the school to do it. According to him, they didn't want too many of the attacks to be centralized there, or the authorities would get suspicious. "So I have to go all the way across the city." She muttered, as she entered what looked like a motorcycle workshop.

Smiling evilly, she noticed a mechanic that looked like he'd been working here for several hours. The man's arms were coated with sweat and grease, and he looked totally exhausted. If there was such a thing as a pure heart at a place like this, this boy was probably it. Slipping the egg into a set of tool boxes along one wall, she left the room without the focused mechanic having noticed.

On the other side of the room, Haruka Tenoh opened a door that lead out to the tarmac of the track. She was in her customary racing outfit. "Hey, Takato. The bike ready yet?" She asked, looking down at the boy who was working under her motorcycle.

"Gah!" Takato yelped, cracking his head off of the exhaust pipe. "Couldn't you have made a bit more noise when you came in, Tenoh?"

"Sorry." Haruka apologized, reaching down to help the mechanic up. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Takato replied, rubbing at the lump on the side of his head as he accepted Haruka's hand and let her pull him up. "I've just been taking a look at the new Kawasaki that Izumi-san got a hold of."

"Spent all night ripping it apart and putting it back together, didn't you?" Haruka asked, smirking. She knew this mechanic, and he could occasionally get a bit overly-enthusiastic. At his sheepish nod, she pretended to look at her bike worriedly. "The front fork isn't going to fall off on a turn or something, is it?" She asked.

Takato smirked. "It might. Guess you're just gunna have to risk it." He said, slapping Haruka on the back before walking deeper into the garage.

The blonde just shook her head, wheeling her bike out of the door that she'd come in through and onto the track. As she did so, a bad feeling made her look back for an instant. Seeing nothing, she shrugged it off and kept going.

HR.

Ranma pumped her fist and cheered as Haruka took an easily measurable lead on the final lap. She hadn't been sure what the blonde was thinking before, since she'd kept close to the guy who was in second, but now she was out front and pulling across the finish line. Seeing this, the redhead stood and cheered louder. A few moments later, Haruka got off of her bike and started to walk it into the storage area. The other racers were just pulling up. A few seconds after Ranma tracked Haruka into the storage area of the garage, there was a huge explosion, and a section of the wall collapsed.

Instantly, the redhead was moving, bouncing down the stands and heading for the source of the explosion. Hitting the ground running, she managed to make it to the part of the building with the hole in it, only to see some sort of monster crouching inside. She only got a brief glimpse of it, but decided that she'd better be safe. Ducking around the corner and quickly checking for witnesses, she took out her transformation pen.

HR.

As Haruka pulled her bike into the service area, she saw something that stopped her cold in her tracks. There was a large, bright red monster standing in the middle of the area. It had chrome ridges all over its arms and body, and it looked almost like it had been put together from Lego blocks, but it somehow managed to look vaguely like a human. It carried a strange looking crystal in one hand, and wore Takato's mechanic's hat, half-way falling off of its head.

Immediately, Haruka reached for the transformation pen that she'd stored in her pocket, but a hail of what looked like socket wrenches caused her to dodge out of the way. "Stay back, human!" It clanked, in some weirdly echoing tone.

"What the hell?" Haruka muttered, right before a tank of compressed air that was sitting in the back of the room exploded, having apparently been hit by one of the thing's projectiles. Idly, Haruka noticed that the blast had knocked out a back wall. Cursing, she rolled away from the cloud of debris that it had produced, and right into a corner.

"I have you now!" The thing said, and Haruka got to see it open up little hatches on its body to launch the tools at her this time. She raised her arms to protect her face, not having enough time to get her pen, and braced for the blow. "Deep Submerge!"

'Huh?' She thought. 'That doesn't sound right.' Looking up, she saw the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. Not only was it Sailor Neptune, but she'd just saved her life. Letting out a large sigh of relief, Haruka backed off as Neptune came in and delivered a vicious kick to the thing's leg, causing it to snap.

"Careful," She called. "That could actually be one of the mechanics around here, changed into that thing." Admittedly, it did seem like an odd idea, but it was wearing Takato's hat, she couldn't see him anywhere, and she'd heard somewhere that several of the Senshi's old enemies had used that tactic.

"Huh?" Neptune asked, quizzically. Unfortunately, her distraction allowed the enemy to catch her along the side with several flung tools, including a screwdriver that looked like it had hurt. "Urk, that didn't feel too good." Neptune muttered, as she rolled to a stop at Haruka's feet. She was getting up, but she looked a little bit off balance.

Growling, Haruka dug into her pocket again and removed her own Henshin pen. Bringing it out, she reached into the air and called "Uranus Planet Power!" Half a second later, the blonde Senshi was helping her red haired companion to her feet.

After Neptune looked balanced, Uranus turned to the enemy and slammed her hand to the ground. "World Shaking!" She yelled, sending a bolt of yellow energy at her target. She didn't realize that she'd over-powered the attack until too late. About five seconds after the monster had slammed into a set of lockers, to be exact. Fortunately, as the creature fell away from the locker, the door came with it and revealed Takato, who was propped up inside.

"Looks like that theory of yers was half-baked." Neptune said, looking over at Uranus with a grin.

"Fine, but why isn't he moving?" Uranus asked, worriedly, as she looked at one of her best mechanics.

"That demon's got a crystal that's got all of his life energy in it. We gotta get it back." Neptune explained, before charging at the creature, which had just regained its senses from being flung into the lockers. She tried the trick she'd used to get the other Youma to let go of Kasumi's energy crystal, but this opponent seemed a lot tougher. It brushed her off, and sent her crashing across the room. Grunting in annoyance, she got to her feet and fired a deep submerge. Just as she did so, Uranus fired another World Shaking from the other side. The demon was caught up between the two, and crushed. Takato's crystal gently fell to the ground.

"Wow, that one took a lot more damage than the first one I saw that stole energy crystals." Neptune said, wiping a trail of sweat from her brow.

"This was fun," Uranus said, sarcastically, "but how do we help Takato?"

Neptune nodded, and stepped towards the energy crystal. Picking it up, she looked into it for a brief moment. It shone with a mostly blue light, the occasional fleck of green and white passing through it. All in all, it looked a lot like Kasumi's though in darker colors.

"Are you going to do something with that?" Uranus asked, snapping her fellow Senshi out of her trance.

"Oh yeah, sorry." Neptune said, walking over to the mechanic and kneeling next to his slumped body. Holding the crystal over his heart, she let it go and it descended into his chest. "He'll wake up pretty soon." She said, as she stood up.

"Good." Uranus said, before hearing the sound of several people clapping. Turning around, she saw that the hole in the wall that Neptune had come through several minutes earlier had gathered a crowd, mostly consisting of pit crew and racers. Immediately, she began to blush as she saw several of them staring at her.

"C'mon Uranus, let's go." Neptune said, seeing that the other girl was starting to lock up.

"R… Right." Uranus stuttered, quickly leaping out of the hole, following the redhead.

END.

Sailor Moon Continuity Note: This chapter's Youma attack is VERY LOOSELY based on a flashback in Sailor Moon S where Haruka's first transformation is revealed. The comment on a Daimon perhaps being a transformed person was actually a reference to the flashback in question, which was taken verbatim from the Manga. This isn't really a problem, until you realize that there are drastic differences between the two. For example, the Manga created daimons from the students of Infinity Academy, rather like Guyver's Zoanoids. I modified the scene into Haruka's odd theory, because that flashback doesn't add up when put into the Anime.

Anyhow, now that the rambling's over, Please R&R!


	34. Chapter 34, Don't drink and train

Well, here you go, people. Not much to say, though my pre-reader warned me that this chapter seemed kinda filler-ish. Note also that he hasn't had a chance to go over it yet, so you can't blame him for the errors until later.

Anyhow, on with the show!

Chapter 34, Don't Drink and Train.

Akane looked at the sign on the door, uncertain. Checking the paper again, she read the words that were written in Nabiki's neat, straight edged hand writing. "Go to the Peeking Duck in the Juuban District." The note read. She had found the note, along with a ticket for the train, in her shirt pocket this morning, and was relatively sure that Nabiki had given it to her. The question was, 'why?'

Pushing open the door to the little restaurant, the youngest Tendo Daughter blinked in surprise as she saw that Mousse was standing behind the counter, Cologne hopping from table to table and serving bowls of Ramen.

"Oh, hello Mizuno-san!" Mousse called out, happily, as he waved at Akane.

Cologne turned towards the door for a second, then pogoed towards the blind boy and whapped him upside the head. "Put your glasses on, boy." She grumbled. "That is Akane Tendo."

Akane looked cautiously around the room, wondering where Shampoo was, before stepping up to the counter. "Hi." She said, nervously, sitting down. "Nabiki told me to come here." She started, uncertainly.

Cologne nodded. "Yes, she called me yesterday and told me of your problem." The old woman said. "Mousse, could you serve the tables while I talk to Miss Tendo?"

Mousse looked confused, but nodded. 'I thought I was running this place?' He thought, but had the good sense not to say it as he scooped up several bowls of Ramen in his hands and began to distribute them.

"So you know why she wanted me to come here?" Akane asked, hopefully, blinking as Mousse set one of the bowls in front of her before continuing.

"Yes." The former elder said, nodding. "You have challenged your father for control of your Dojo, correct?"

"Yeah." Akane said, nervously.

"It seams your sister wants me to help you train for the battle." Cologne said, before snorting. "I don't see why, given that Tendo is so out of practice." She grumbled, just low enough for Akane to miss.

"You're going to train me?" Akane asked, her eyes widening. Getting training from Cologne was, if not at the top of her list of things she wanted to do, at least pretty high. Then, her mind caught up with her enthusiasm. "What's the catch?"

The old woman smiled wickedly. "Well, this place is getting more busy lately." She said, simply. "I believe that Mousse needs a new waitress."

At the old woman's evil smile, the youngest Tendo gulped nervously, but after a few moments of thinking, she nodded. "I'll do it." She said, not realizing the world of pain she'd just prepared herself for.

HR.

"Are you ready to tell me what happened?" Setsuna asked, sitting on a stool next to Nodoka as the older looking woman took another small sip from a glass of clear liquid that wasn't water. She hoped she didn't sound impatient, even though she was, as Nodoka really did need someone to talk to at the moment.

"Have you… have you ever had everything you ever believed in revealed as an impossible task?" The auburn haired woman asked, softly.

Setsuna wanted to respond with a resounding yes, but was pretty sure that she couldn't tell the story of how the time gates had suddenly stopped working without sounding completely insane, so merely stayed silent, waiting for her companion to keep going.

"I spent my entire life attempting to live up to my family's standards, even though I'd married someone they considered 'below my station.'" Nodoka said, angrily. "Now, I find out that it was all a test… that no matter how well I did in living up to their ideals, I would have never succeeded."

"So… you're upset at them for putting you through the test." Setsuna hazarded, taking a sip on her own drink, her second as opposed to Nodoka's fourth. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a little voice was telling her that taking Nodoka out drinking to make her less depressed had been one of the less inspired decisions she'd made in the last few hundred years, but she dismissed that voice rather easily.

"No…. Yes…." Nodoka said, shaking her head slightly. "I am angry at them, but… I understand what they were thinking." She said, quietly. "That's the part that bothers me so much. I understand why they did it."

Setsuna raised an eyebrow. "And why's that?" She asked, genuinely curious.

"Do you know why I pushed the Seppuku promise so hard when I was living at the Tendo home?" Nodoka asked, seeming to push things off course.

Setsuna shrugged, thankful for the fact that her powers gave her an accurate time keeper in her head so she didn't look at a watch. "Why?" She finally asked, after Nodoka had been silent for a few moments.

"I.. wanted to make Ranma a better person." She laughed, bitterly. "I knew that Genma had done damage to my son's character while he was making him such a good martial artist, and I used the threat of the Seppuku contract to try and make him improve." She stopped for a moment, and then whispered. "Parents always know what's best for their children, right?" Before sobbing quietly over her glass.

Setsuna sighed again. She would have to deal with Ranma and Haruka later. This was obviously more important for the moment. "It's all right." She said, quietly, patting Nodoka on the shoulder.

"Hello ladies, I couldn't help but notice…" A rather disreputable looking man who had just sidled up to the bar started, before stepping back at Setsuna's icy glare. "I… I'm sorry, Ma'am. I'll just leave you two alone, then."

'Didn't even have to say a word. Still got it.' The guardian of time thought, before turning back to the crying other woman and continuing to comfort her.

HR.

"Hey, will you get back here?!" Sailor Uranus called, as Neptune leapt across a busy street, from one rooftop to another.

"What, can't you catch me?" The redhead smirked, looking back at her fiancée.

"You know I can't jump roofs." Uranus grumbled, glaring.

"Oh? Then how'd you get up here?" Neptune returned, gesturing to the roof, that of the track's main registration building, where Uranus was standing. "Now hurry up, we've got to find somewhere to change back."

Uranus gaped, walking to the edge of the roof and looking down to see the ground a couple stories below. Gulping nervously, she propelled herself into the air, astonished as her feet carried her much higher than they should have. As she was on the descending side of her arc, she let the sensation of the world flying past around her and the wind blowing in her short hair register. "Wow…" She said, landing next to Neptune on the roof across the street. "That was… amazing!"

Neptune grinned. "I know. First time I did it, pop was chasing after me with a whip, but I still found it fun." She said. "Wanna try some more?"

"Well, I…" Uranus started, before the other Senshi took off. "Hey, get back here!" She called, indignantly, charging after and leaping the gap between this roof and the next without thinking about it. To her surprise and annoyance, Neptune kept going, leading her on a merry chase across the city. Still, it was so much fun that driving her bike down a track paled in comparison.

Much to her surprise, the blonde actually found herself slowly closing the gap with the redhead, even though she saw that the other girl was going at full speed and cutting corners wherever she could.

Within about ten minutes, the trailing girl had caught up with the other, grabbing her. "Got'cha!" She laughed, swinging the other around quickly.

Neptune laughed. "Dang, guess not havin my Chi to use slows me down a lot." She admitted, grudgingly.

"Don't talk like that, you know I beat you fair and square." Uranus said, squeezing Neptune more tightly. "Now let's get changed and go back to the track so we can go home."

"Don't have ta worry about goin to get your bike." Neptune said, pointing across the street from the small apartment block they now stood on top of.

"Gwah?" Uranus asked, seeing that Setsuna's house was right in front of them. "How did we make that run in ten minutes?"

The redhead shrugged. "Didn't have to worry about traffic." She explained, shortly, before leaping down the side of the building and into an alley. Dumbly, Uranus followed, and once she'd landed she triggered the transformation back to civilian form. "

You know…" She said, as the two headed out of the alley. "If that's part of being a Senshi, maybe I can put up with the clothes."

Ranma laughed. "I can teach ya how ta do that without transforming." She said, off-hand.

"Really?" Haruka asked, skeptically. Ranma simply nodded, digging around in her pocket for her key to the house.

"Yeah." The redhead explained. "But first I gotta go through all of Happosai's old stuff to see what's there." She grimaced in distaste. The door swung open, and Haruka didn't ask any further questions as they entered the house.

HR.

"Gotta get it, gotta get it…" Akane mumbled, sliding under the spinning form of yet another bowl of Ramen and sighing in relief as it settled on her left hand. Slowly, she stood up and carried the bowl over to its designated table. There was polite, if slightly astonished applause as she set it down, and she turned to see Cologne looking at her with a very small smile.

"I did it!" She said, happily. "That wasn't so hard!"

"Order's up!" The old woman called, throwing yet another bowl… wait, there were two.

"Hey, what?!" Akane called, desperately running to catch the two bowls. She managed to catch one in her hand again, but the other one bounced off of the fingers of the other hand, flipping slightly and landing on her head as the Ramen inside of it spilled down the Chinese dress Cologne had insisted she wear. In an instant, her often lamented clumsiness came into effect, and she slipped on the spill. "Oof." She gasped, landing on her posterior with the bowl of Ramen still on her head.

"Are you all right, Akane Tendo?" Came Mousse's voice, as the boy plucked the empty Ramen bowl off of the blushing girl's head.

"Yeah, thanks Mousse." She said, accepting his hand as he pulled her up. "I guess I need a little more work."

Mousse nodded evenly, pulling a small hand towel out of his hidden weapons space and handing it to the girl. Unknown to either of them, there was a slightly younger brown haired girl standing at the entrance to the store.

Makoto Kino groaned to herself. "No, not another one." She grumbled, turning away. She'd been coming here every day since the place had opened, and had really gotten attached to the owner. Now, he was being so nice to that other girl, and she was so much older and prettier.

'No.' She thought, clenching her teeth. She would not lose another perspective boyfriend, not again! "I won't let you get away!" She cried, not realizing that she was speaking out loud until the restaurant's noise level dropped noticeably.

Looking around, she laughed nervously. "Erm, it's a… a really nice day!" She said, hopefully. Several people gave her odd looks, but turned back to their ramen.

On the other side of the Restaurant, where she was trying to clean herself up, Akane turned her attention away from the rather odd brown haired girl who'd just left. "I'm never going to do this." She grumbled, picking several noodles off of the front of her dress. "I bet dad's having a lot more luck training than I am."

HR.

"Tendo, you know that this isn't exactly what you should be doing right now." Genma Saotome grumbled, as he stood behind his best friend.

"Be quiet Saotome." Soun snapped, the river of tears that was going down his face ceasing for a moment as he turned to glare at the bald man. "I am going to be required to fight my youngest daughter in only six days. This is very important."

Genma sighed. "Perhaps you are forgetting that Akane has been training with Ranma for several years, and you haven't been training at all." He grunted. He'd always had a problem with his old friend's slacking in his art, but had previously thought that Ranma would take over the Dojo, making Soun's weakness a moot issue.

Now, however, as Soun continued the several hour long prayer of forgiveness to his wife's shrine, Genma was seriously questioning his sanity.

HR.

She stood on the challenge log, a steady stream of sweat dripping off of her forehead as she squared off against yet another warrior. Shampoo had demanded the right to explain herself, and the council had given it, but only if she could fight her way through every warrior in the village, back up to her former spot of champion.

The problem came when one considered that there were forty six warriors in the village, and they had had her fighting ten of them every day. Fortunately for her stamina and her life, this was the last. She was a towering woman by the name of Dowell, the one she'd beaten two years ago for the title of village's champion before the outsider had come and taken it away from her so easily.

Shampoo smirked, even as some more of the sweat dripped into her eyes, causing them to flinch shut. What Dowell didn't know was that being in Nerima for so long had toughened the purple haired woman up quite a bit. Leaping forward, she delivered a strong blow across the other woman's fat head with her Bonbori, staggering her. Before the mass of muscle could re-align herself, Shampoo's other mace had swept her feet, sending her crashing off of the log in a very painful looking manor.

Jumping off herself, Shampoo bowed to the elders who were watching. "I have proven myself, correct?" She asked, in formal Chinese.

The women conferred amongst themselves for a moment, before the leader nodded. "Yes, Xian Pu, you have. You may speak, but if we do not approve of what you have to say…" She said, warningly.

"I understand, honored elder." The purple haired girl said, bowing. "I merely wish to gain that which is rightfully mine." The elders nodded, escorting her back to the village's main meeting hut.

HR.

"Hmm, this one actually doesn't look all that bad." Ranma said, reading over a scroll. To his left, there was a massive pile of other scrolls, tiny trinkets, and dusty old manuals. To his right were two other piles, one much smaller than the other.

"What is it?" Haruka asked, leaning over wearily. Having seen the contents of the pile that Ranma had chosen to discard completely, she was thinking that Happosai was one sick puppy.

"A technique for removing clothing." Ranma murmured.

"A what?" Haruka asked, her eyebrow twitching.

"Huh? Oh, no, I don't want it for that!" Ranma said, hurriedly. "It'd just be useful if I could use it to remove armor or concealed weapons, that's all." He explained, as Haruka kept staring at him with a perfectly neutral expression.

"Right." The blonde said, sighing. "Is there any reason you can't just toss all of this stuff out?"

"I've already gone over this once." Ranma explained. "This is part of the anything goes, and I've got to see how much of it I can salvage." He grimaced as he looked over the contents of the next scroll. "Even if I'd rather burn it all."

"What was that one?" Haruka asked, reaching out for the scroll Ranma had just dropped in the discard pile.

"Trust me, don't look at it." He responded, shortly, before the sound of the house's front door opening reverberated through the front hall and into the kitchen. After a few moments of silence, he called out. "Who's out there?"

"It's only us, Ranma-chan!" Came Nodoka's voice, though she seemed far too cheerful.

"Hmm, I guess her visit with her parents went well." Haruka said, dryly, as the two got up and headed for the door. Her estimation swung sharply the other way as she saw Setsuna and Nodoka leaning on each other, grinning happily. The green haired woman looked much more sober than the auburn haired one, but that really wasn't saying much. "What the heck happened to you two?" She drawled, almost not believing what she was seeing.

"Aw, Setsuna-chan just took me out to have some fun, right?" Nodoka asked, her speech quite audibly slurred.

"Mom…?" Ranma said, forgetting himself in his astonishment. Quickly, he moved forward as she collapsed. "Ugh, your breath smells like the old man's after a night out with Mr. Tendo." He said, wrinkling his nose.

"I'm sorry." The older woman said, letting her head drop into Ranma's shoulder.

He was about to comment, when he felt her pass out. "Hmm, guess I know where I got my tolerance to alcohol from." He mused, carrying her upstairs to bed.

"You got her drunk?" Haruka asked, looking at Setsuna in disbelief.

The green haired woman shrugged. "It was one of those times when she needed it." She explained.

"Oh, is that what you say to the students you council?" The blonde asked, disbelieving.

"No, but she's not one of my students." Setsuna responded, shortly, before walking into the house and looking curiously at the pile of stuff on the kitchen table. "What's this?" She asked, pointing.

"Ranma brought it home. It's stuff that old guy, Happosai, owned." Haruka explained, wondering why Setsuna was so interested.

Setsuna didn't seem to hear her, as something in the larger pile of artifacts drew her attention. She reached in, past a mass of papers, and withdrew a small wooden mirror. "This…" She mumbled, astonished.

"What is it?" Haruka asked, curiously.

Setsuna jumped. "Oh, it's… it's nothing." She said, quickly, putting the mirror down on the table again, but continuing to look back at it in surprise. "I… should probably go upstairs and get to bed too."

Haruka raised an eyebrow as the older woman walked past her, all drunkenness seeming to vanish from her appearance and walk. Still, whatever had bothered Setsuna was probably none of her business.

HR.

In the darkness of Dr. Tomoe's lab, the aforementioned scientist sat at his desk, drinking a cup of tea. The Daimon that had been deployed today had done its job. True, it had been destroyed afterwards, but it had done its job.

For the moment, all he needed to do was to have peoples' heart crystals released. That would be all that would be required to determine if they were talismans or not. Yes, this variety of Daimon was perfectly capable of doing that much. "Eudial!" He called, loudly.

"Yes, professor?" A woman's voice asked, as a red haired woman, wearing a choker with a black star on it emerged from the darkness.

"The latest type of Daimon is sufficient for the start of our operation. Begin your search for pure hearted candidates immediately." The doctor said, simply.

"Yes, doctor." The girl said, fading back into the shadows as he began to laugh maniacally. Soft muttering about insane old fools could be heard, but the doctor deliberately ignored it.

END.


	35. Chapter 35, Trouble At The Shrine

Well, my last update, the Angel Of Light Epilogue, got roughly the same response as EVA 25-26… SO, I hope this goes over a little better. Sorry again for slow updates, but at least I am updating, right?

Chapter 35, Trouble At The Shrine.

She didn't want to move. Every time she'd moved, the little men with the mallets had started up in her head again. Unfortunately, someone else had other ideas. "C'mon, wake up." A soft, though deep, voice said as a hand shook her gently.

Nodoka, formerly of the Saotome clan, cracked her eyes open reluctantly and immediately winced from the stabbing of the morning sun light into them. "Urk, what happened?" She managed to croak out, her mouth tasting rather a lot like carpet.

The male voice came again, actually sounding slightly amused. "You drank a little bit too much last night, aunt Nodoka." He said, pushing a glass of water into one of her hands. "You'll feel better in a little while."

"Ranma?" She asked, looking over to the side of the bed to see the pigtailed martial artist sitting there, another glass of water and a few other things sitting on the table next to him. Immediately, her cheeks reddened. She was Ranma's mother, and here he was, sitting at her bedside and helping her get over a hangover. "I can't believe this." She muttered, though she did take a small drink from the water, the cool liquid helping wash the taste out of her mouth.

He shrugged. "Did this for Genma enough times." He stopped, contemplating for a moment. "Well, with him it usually started with a kick in the side."

Nodoka giggled in spite of herself, the movement causing her to wince again.

"Bout the only time I could wake up before the old panda." Ranma explained.

"So, why are you doing this for me?" Nodoka asked, after taking another drink from her glass of water, and a couple of small pills that Ranma had offered her.

He shrugged. "I know how it feels." He explained, getting a surprised look from her.

"When did you get drunk?" She asked. It didn't really seem to be something that Ranma would do, but she supposed he must have done something to blow off stress in Nerima, and this may have been it.

"Long story, involving Kuno and a giant bottle of sake." He said, shortly, before handing her the next glass of water that was sitting on the side of the bed. "Mind telling me why you had to get yerself smashed?" He stopped, contemplating how to say what was next, but eventually decided that he would suck at being tactful anyways. "I guess yer visit with your parents didn't work out too well."

Nodoka winced as the memory of the confrontation the day before flooded back into her mind. "It…. Didn't go the way I wanted it to." She admitted, softly.

"You wanna tell me about it?" He asked. Smirking ironically, he continued. "I'm kinda an expert on really bad first impressions."

Nodoka winced again, this time not from her massive headache as she heard the way Ranma had said those words. "I think we both made our mistakes then, Ranma." She said, softly, prompting a nod from the younger boy. He didn't say anything else, simply waiting, so she sighed and began to recount what had happened during her meeting with her father.

"…And then Setsuna-san came." She finished, after a few minutes of talking.

Ranma winced. "Yeah, that sounds like it coulda gone better." He muttered, and then perked up slightly. "Well, at least you know it's repairable."

Nodoka's head whipped around to look at him from the lowered position she'd brought it back to during the course of her tale, and she looked at him in surprise. "What?"

"Well, he didn't chase you off the property with a Katana." He said, smirking. Seeing that her face was beginning to cloud up, he quickly continued. "Look, We're…" He struggled to find the right words, but shrugged in defeat when he couldn't. "Due to honor I can't call you mom anymore, but I still want to. In spite of the stupid seppuku thing, and the manliness stuff, yer… I love you." He finished. Fortunately, it was much easier to say to her than to Haruka and Akane, probably because of the difference between the two types of love.

Picking his words carefully, he continued. "Despite all the stuff I did, the hidin, the fact that I ain't all that good in school, the fact that I ran from the family…" He trailed off, looking away. "You… you still came ta look for me. All I'm sayin is that neither of ya screwed up quite as bad as me 'n you have, right?"

Nodoka wasn't sure what to say. Ranma's point had been delivered with the subtlety of a sledge hammer, but he DID have a point. There had been no cursing, no swearing, no gnashing of teeth or death threats… Maybe…. She turned to her former son with a radiant smile. "Thank you, Ranma." She said, ignoring the effects of the hangover, which had actually been fading for a while now, and leaning over to hug the boy.

He looked sheepish. "It's no problem." He said, before his eyes rested on the clock next to her bed. "Aw, crap." He muttered, causing Nodoka to pull away and look at him in concern.

"What is it, Ranma?" She asked.

"I'm gunna be late for school!" He yelped, jumping up from the chair. As he did so, his knee knocked the table next to her bed. He cursed in pain, the sound abruptly increasing in pitch as the glass of water that she'd set down on the table when she'd started to talk jolted from the blow, dumping its contents over his lower body.

Nodoka stifled a giggle as a panicked and annoyed redhead ran for the door. 'What a manly son.' She thought, her giggles getting worse, as she fell back into her bed to sleep in for another hour.

HR.

Haruka frowned as she walked down the road that lead to school. Ranma had insisted that he should make sure Nodoka was all right before he left for school, but he'd still been in her room when Haruka had had to leave. She hadn't wanted to interrupt them, in case he was having a private conversation with his mother, but she hoped that nothing bad had happened. Seeing the building approaching and the large clock that had been mounted above the front doors, the blonde's steps began to quicken. She hadn't realized she was that late.

As she was about to enter the front door, she saw a red blur dart past her. "Wow, he's moving fast this morning." She muttered, recognizing the blur as Ranma's female form. Shrugging it off and deciding that she'd ask him what had happened when they got home, she walked through the door that the redhead had left wide open in her passage, heading off to class.

HR.

"Kaolinite!" The voice snapped into the shadows, causing one of them to emerge into the light at the middle of the room, where Dr. Tomoe stood.

"Yes, doctor?" The red haired woman in the lab coat asked, sounding as if she was phenomenally bored. "Is there something you want?"

"Eudial has found a likely spot for us to plant the Daimon egg in order to obtain a pure heart crystal. I wish for you to do it." The professor said, handing the woman a small egg shaped object, and a crinkled piece of paper.

She read it over, and frowned. "If you have Eudial and the other witches 5 searching for likely heart crystal locations, why do I have to go plant the eggs?" She asked, annoyed.

Tomoe frowned. "You are currently free, since Hotaru is at school. Besides, you aren't questioning my orders, are you Kaolinite?"

Kaolinite flinched. "No, professor." She said, grudgingly.

"Good!" He said, then smiled. "We wouldn't want to disturb those other girls' education now, would we?"

Kaolinite just looked at him oddly, before disappearing.

HR.

Ranma grumbled to herself as she walked down the hall to her wood shop class, wishing that she hadn't been careless enough not to have noticed the time. As it was, she had almost been late to English class, and had ended up sitting through the entire class as a girl. She wouldn't have minded that so much, if half of the guys in the class hadn't stared at her.

She sighed, but then brightened. There was a bathroom next to the shop class, so she would be able to turn back into a guy before second period.

As she turned into the short hallway where both the wood shop and the small classroom that was used for hands off lessens were, she saw the last remnants of the younger class leaving their room for lunch break.

In the very back of the line was the small black haired girl she'd helped before. Smiling, she waved.

The girl seemed startled, but tentatively waved back, so Ranma walked over to her. "You doing okay this week?" The redhead asked, concerned.

"Y… yes, ma'am." The girl, Ranma thought she'd been called Hotaru, said as she bowed.

"Hey, don't call me that. Name's Ranko." Ranma said, having gotten back into the habit of using that name already. "Those guys ain't bugging you anymore?"

Hotaru shook her head.

"Good." Ranma said. "Tell me if anything happens." Suddenly, she thought of something. "If I'm not around, my brother'll help ya. He wears the same kinda clothes as me, but his hair's black."

"Thank you, Ranko-san." Hotaru said, shyly, before turning around and walking down the hall. As she turned the corner, her eyes seemed to change from their normal, deep violet color to a jet black, but then they returned to normal. She shook her head, shaking off the sudden dizzy spell she'd just had, and went off to have lunch.

HR.

Rei Hino stared into the sacred fire, the bags under her eyes and her slight pallor telling anyone who wanted to look that she hadn't slept for the past couple of nights. The dreams had actually started on Saturday morning, waking her from a sound sleep with visions of the other Senshi being destroyed running through her head. That had been the only true 'vision,' she believed, but she'd had nightmares representing it every night since.

She hadn't been able to get the images from her mind, and as she meditated, the fire flashed chaotically, a mirror to her thoughts.

Sighing in defeat, the fire Senshi stood, dusting the front of her robes free of ash. "I should tell the others." She muttered, turning away and walking from the inner sanctum of the shrine.

Stopping by the small booth where she or Yuuichiro occasionally sold fortunes, she grabbed one of the little sticks, carefully reading the Kanji that was written on its side.

'The air will protect you.' She read, and smiled. 'It's a nice thought.'

Exiting the main shrine building, she walked up to the large cherry tree in the middle of the grounds, tying the fortune to one of its branches. Just as she did so, the sense that warned her of evil flared in the back of her mind, though it was far too late.

Within seconds, the tree had changed, warping its shape into a deformed parody of a woman, a case full of larger versions of the fortune telling sticks strapped to its back.

Rei tried to back away, but it grabbed at her, catching her by the throat. Rei desperately clawed at its arm, but it didn't seem to do anything as a beam of black energy shot from a star on the thing's forehead and hit her in the heart.

"Vile Youma, how dare you attack a shrine where young people come to pray and go on dates! I am the pretty suited soldier of love and justice, Sailor Moon, and in the name of the moon, I will punish you!"

Rei looked to the side, her sight fading as her energy left her, only to see Sailor moon standing in her usual pose, one arm pointed at the thing that had drained her energy. 'Sailor… Moon…' She thought, right before falling completely unconscious.

HR.

Mamoru Chiba sighed as he sat at the counter in a small restaurant, looking at the test paper that Usagi had thrown at him. "Maybe I was too hard on her." He thought, looking at the barely passing grade.

He'd gotten the test from a depressed Usagi earlier in the day, and had immediately started to tease her about how badly she'd done on it. He was only trying to help her, to make her do better, but maybe he'd gone overboard. He hated hurting Usagi's feelings, but he was usually honestly unsure what was her being a cry baby, and when he'd really gone too far.

"I'll apologize to her next time I see her." He mumbled, finally. Just as he said that, a girl that looked a little like Ami, only older, set a bowl of ramen down in front of him. "Finally caught it, huh?" He asked, smiling at her.

The blue-black haired girl smiled in return. He'd been watching her run around the floor of the restaurant, desperately trying, and usually succeeding, at the task of catching numerous bowls at once. He was honestly not sure what it was for, but it was fun to watch. "So, not that it's any of my business, but who are you going to apologize to?" The girl asked, sitting down next to him.

He looked at her, surprised. "Don't you have work to do?"

"I'm on a break." She explained, shrugging. "I'm not moving from here until Cologne-Sensei tells me I have to."

"Cologne-Sensei?" He asked, surprised at the oddness of the name.

The girl merely shrugged, pointing a finger over the counter at a wrinkled old woman who was busily cooking a pot of noodles. "So, who are you supposed to apologize to?"

Mamoru thought for a moment of telling her to go away, but decided not to. "Usagi. She's… my girlfriend, sort of." He said, not sure how to explain a destined love from a past life.

"So, what happened?" She asked, leaning against the counter.

"You ask a lot of questions, don't you?" Mamoru asked, annoyed.

The girl shrugged, and looked away. "I can leave you alone if you want. You just looked depressed."

Mamoru sighed. "I teased her about a mark on a test, and I think I went a little overboard." He finally said.

She looked him up and down for a moment. "Hmm, sounds like something Ranma would do." She said, taking on an unreadable expression.

"Your boyfriend?" Mamoru hazarded, and was surprised when her unreadable look turned into a kind of sad smile.

"Ex-fiancé." She said, simply.

Mamoru was about to respond to that when he felt something in the back of his head. He recognized the feeling. He'd felt it several times, and it usually meant Usagi was in danger. He didn't know how or why the feeling came, but he obeyed it without thinking. Quickly, he grabbed his wallet, slammed a thousand yen bill down on the counter, and started running out of the restaurant.

"Wait, your… change?" Akane Tendo asked, blinking as the door swung closed behind the strange older man.

"Tendo, back to work!" Cologne snapped, and Akane jumped up, pocketing the bill, as yet another set of bowls started flying through the air.

Akane just dismissed the rather odd customer, jumping back into her training with an odd mixture of resignation and excitement.

HR.

Haruka walked down the street in the Juuban market district, contemplating how to kill another half hour's worth of time. She'd gone to her last class a little under an hour ago, only to find that the teacher had called in sick. At the moment, that left her with very little to do for the time until Ranma left his own class. She'd started on her way home, but had then decided that she wanted to get something to eat. Since she only knew a couple of restaurants in the area, and one of them was a lot more expensive than she wanted, she had started heading towards the Peeking Duck.

As she came around the corner that lead up to the Chinese restaurant's entrance, she saw a strange man in a black suit jacket running out of it. For some reason, something about the man drew her attention and she found herself quickly following after him as he charged down the street.

At first, she thought he'd robbed the place, but Mousse wasn't chasing him down so she quickly rejected that possibility. Following him down an alley between an apartment building and a shop, she ducked behind a large dumpster as he stopped at the end and took a cautious look around.

With her watching from behind her dumpster, the strange man withdrew a red rose from inside of his jacket, though it looked as if it hadn't just been stuffed into such a confined space. The rose began to glow, and enveloped him in red light before a tuxedo clad figure stood in his place. 'You've got to be kidding.' She said, and then gasped when the tuxedo clad man jumped straight up to the third level of the apartment building's fire escape, and from there onto the roof of the shop.

Numbly, Haruka withdrew her transformation pen. Looking around to make sure that no one else had followed them into the alley, she raised it. "Uranus Planet Power, Make Up!"

HR.

"No, no… Not like this…" Sailor Moon whispered, as the strange new Youma pinned her and three of the other Senshi to one of the outer walls of Rei's shrine with oversized prayer sticks.

Mercury, Jupiter and Venus couldn't move, in the same position as she was against the wall, and Rei lay on the shrine grounds, passed out. The creature stood over Moon, a crystal that she'd seen it extract from Rei's chest clenched in one hand.

"Ha, now I can destroy you, too!" It cried, leaning forward and sinking its teeth into the broach at the center of Moon's front bow.

For a moment, the blonde haired Senshi was relieved that the thing hadn't actually bitten into her actual skin, before the thing bit down hard and she heard her broach give a loud crack. Abruptly, she felt the power of her Senshi form fading from her, and Usagi Tsukino was now hanging by her caught school uniform.

"No…." She gasped, her broach falling to the ground, its front badly cracked. Just as the Youma was about to strike her with another blow that would likely finish her off, a red rose streaked through its hand. It screamed, and Usagi sighed in relief. "Tuxedo Mask?" She asked, looking over to see said man standing on the shrine's wall.

He merely nodded, withdrawing his black cane from behind his back, and charging at the Youma with it.

Usagi's hopes soared for a moment, before the Youma backhanded the Tuxedoed defender, sending him flying into the ground. "Tuxedo Mask, no!" She yelled.

"Hey, ugly!" Another voice came from the wall where Tuxedo Mask had first stood, and Usagi whipped her head around again to see a Senshi, her ribbons yellow and skirt blue, glairing at the Youma. "World Shaking!"

The Monster turned to face this new threat, but it didn't do so fast enough as the ball of gold energy impacted into it, sending it staggering backwards several steps.

The new Senshi jumped down to the ground in the Shrine's courtyard, taking up an offensive stance. Shooting a glance at Tuxedo Mask, who was dragging himself up from the ground slowly, she spoke. "Get those other Senshi loose. I don't know if I can take this thing myself."

"Right…" Tuxedo mask replied, hauling himself the rest of the way to his feet, and staggering over to Usagi first. Even though he wasn't strong enough to fight the Youma, its odd sticks were easy enough to break, and soon Usagi and the other Senshi were all free.

"All right, let's get this thing!" Jupiter said, cracking her knuckles.

Venus and Mercury nodded, and the three started charging their attacks. Just as they reached full power, the mysterious new Senshi let off another world shaking attack, and the four blasts hit at virtually the same time. The creature stood no chance against the combined barrage and was almost instantly destroyed, leaving Rei's heart crystal on the ground.

Usagi immediately ran over to her black haired friend, Mercury quickly following, while Venus, Jupiter and Tuxedo mask took up defensive stances.

"What's wrong with her?" The Odangoed girl asked, looking imploringly at the blue haired Senshi that was scanning her.

It was at this point that the newcomer spoke up. "That crystal." She said, pointing at the item that the Youma had left behind. "It contains most of her energy." She walked forward, scooping up the small object and looking at it. The inner Senshi all tensed up, but the blonde merely ignored them.

Stepping forward, she knelt next to Usagi and held the crystal over Rei's heart, before letting it go. "Abruptly, it sank into place, and Rei's sleep became more peaceful.

"She's in a normal sleep state now." Mercury said, willing her visor away from her eyes.

Usagi looked up, her eyes filled with tears of relief, and smiled at the new Senshi. "Thank you, Miss…" She said, obviously waiting for a response."

"Sailor Uranus." The blonde responded, automatically.

"Then thank you, Sailor Uranus." Usagi said, bowing and looking very serious.

Uranus shrugged, remembering what Ranma had said when she'd asked the smaller redhead what they were supposed to do as Senshi, two days before. Startled, she blinked. It hadn't seemed so recently. "It's what Senshi are supposed to do, right?" She said.

Usagi smiled and nodded, as Rei groaned and she and the other inners all returned their attention to the just waking Sailor Mars.

Uranus realized that the others had their hands full, and were obviously worried about this girl for some reason. Making a quick decision, she turned and left, leaping over the wall of the Shrine grounds.

HR.

Ranma walked from his music class, sighing in relief. He'd been getting more and more nervous all class, something in the back of his brain telling him that there was something wrong. He wasn't sure what it was, but the feeling had finally gone away just a few moments ago. At the moment, all he wanted to do was get home and make sure that Haruka was all right.

Stepping onto the elevator that would bring him down to the main floor, he hit the button and the lift started moving rapidly. To his annoyance, it stopped once, but he blinked as he saw who stepped on. "Kasumi?" He asked, surprised to have met her in the same place, two weeks in a row.

"Ranma-Kun." Kasumi said, smiling. "You're just the person I wanted to see." For some reason, the look on her face when she said that made the pigtailed martial artist very nervous.

END.

Notes: Yes, the Youma was probably described incorrectly. Sorry, but I plead the same case I did with the angels in Angel Of Light. I'm visually impaired. Still, any other errors, shoot.


	36. Chapter 36, Game Plan

Chapter 36, Game Plan.

The inner Senshi plus Mamoru were all sitting in Rei's room, Ami closely watching over the raven haired priestess as she slept in her bed. The other four were sitting around the table in the middle of the room, Mamoru looking worriedly at the despondent Usagi, who was looking down at her shattered transformation broach. The group was silent for a few seconds, before Makoto cleared her throat uncomfortably

Usually, an announcement from Ami, Usagi or Luna would start the conversation, but the cats weren't there, and the two Senshi in question weren't likely to say anything. "Does this attack mean we've got another enemy?" The brown haired girl blurted, expressing her most major worry. The droids and their masters had taxed the Senshi to their limits, and the thing that had attacked earlier in the afternoon had eclipsed the droids in power.

Minako frowned worriedly. "I hope not. Any more like that one, and we'll have our hands full."

"You haven't seen any others that acted like that one before?" Mamoru asked, as he was only ever involved in battles where Usagi was in real danger.

Ami moved over from where she had finished examining Rei, and shook her head as she took a seat at the table. "I haven't been able to look over my readings yet, but there aren't any others that I can remember." She said.

"Is Rei all right?" Usagi asked, her voice almost too soft for the other Senshi to hear.

Ami nodded. "It seems that new Senshi was right, and the crystal that got stolen contained a great amount of her life energy. With it back, she should be awake soon."

Minako perked up. "Speaking of that new Senshi, it was pretty lucky that she showed up. If she hadn't, we'd be baked!" In spite of the mangled expression, the blonde's words were absolutely serious. "It's too bad she didn't stick around. Now we've got two mysterious new Senshi."

"Two?" The prince of earth asked, confused.

"Yeah. Another one showed up to help Ami during a left-over droid attack a little while ago." Makoto explained.

Usagi frowned. "It's a little strange that they just showed up as these new monsters started to attack." She muttered, causing the others to blink in surprise.

"Usako, are you all right?" Mamoru asked, turning the smaller blonde's face to look at him. "That's not usually your attitude towards newcomers."

Usagi shrugged. "I'm sorry." She said, briefly returning her look to her smashed broach. It was obvious to the others that its destruction, and the loss of her powers that came with it, was disturbing her greatly. "I'm feeling a little tired." She muttered. "I think I should head home."

The other three Senshi looked between each other, coming to a conclusion. Senshi business could wait, as long as things didn't get any worse. "We'll see you tomorrow, Usagi." Makoto said, smiling reassuringly.

The blonde rabbit girl nodded and smiled at her friends, before standing up and heading for the room's exit. Mamoru quickly followed, obviously going to walk the girl he loved home.

When the two had left the room, Ami looked at the other two conscious Senshi uncomfortably. "You know, she has a point." The blue haired girl said. "Remember how Ail and An showed up before the cardians started attacking?"

"You really think someone is impersonating Senshi to get close to us?" Minako asked, surprised.

"Well, Artemis said that Neptune looked slightly different." The taller brown haired girl offered.

Ami nodded. "I think I've actually got a lead on Neptune's civilian identity, and I should be seeing… her… this Friday." She replied, not sure that she wanted to drop the bombshell that one of the two new 'Senshi' could be a magical shape shifter.

"We can go with you when you meet her." Makoto offered.

"That may be a good idea." Ami agreed.

HR.

Setsuna sighed as she reviewed what had happened this afternoon in the time gates. She'd been putting her next task off for the past couple of days, and she'd known it, but these last events worried her.

Neptune and Uranus alone could have devastated the Youma earlier, and though it had still been taken out very quickly, Neptune hadn't been there to scan it for a talisman. She was relatively sure that the talismans weren't in the Inner Senshi, since they had all been visible in most of the timelines past pharaoh 90's attempted invasion, but there was still a risk that they'd missed one.

She cursed once again about the distortions around key events that kept her from just looking directly into who contained the other talismans, but as it was, she had to deal with what she had. Taking a calming breath, the Senshi of Pluto offered up a prayer to her planet that she didn't botch up a very sensitive meeting, clenched her staff in one hand, and teleported out of the time gate's main chamber.

HR.

Ranma was surprised. No, he was much more than that, he was shocked. Kasumi had just explained a plan worthy of Shampoo or Cologne, and worse, he was considering HELPING her in it. He walked through the front hall of the Infinity Academy building, not really paying attention to where he was going, but still his martial arts reflexes kept him from bumping into anyone.

He wanted to help Kasumi, especially given all of the things she'd done for him in the past, but this felt a bit like betraying the doc, who he owed almost as much. His mind had been chasing itself around in little circles about this for the past few minutes, and nothing had been resolved.

"Ranma?" Came a female voice, which he thought was rather familiar. He was jolted out of his thoughts, finding himself walking down an almost deserted stretch of the route from the school back to Setsuna's house. Looking around for the person who had spoken his name, he saw the green haired woman in the Senshi Fuku, walking casually next to him.

"Sailor Pluto?" He asked, surprised. He hadn't transformed since yesterday, and she had shown up much sooner than that the last few times.

"I need to talk with you." The green haired time Senshi said, giving him a look that reminded him far too much of Kasumi's earlier.

He sighed. "I wanted ta go make sure Haruka was okay, first." He mumbled, not stopping in his walk home.

"I need to talk to Haruka as well, and we will be teleporting to her in a moment." The time Senshi replied, calmly.

Ranma frowned, but eventually nodded. "Okay." He conceded, and Pluto raised the key shaped staff that she almost always carried. Ranma asked if he had to do anything to teleport, when they both vanished in a flash of light, leaving the street empty once more.

When the two reappeared, Ranma spent several seconds blinking the light out of his eyes. The teleportation had made him pretty dizzy, but fortunately he could handle the disorientation. Once his eyes were cleared of spots, he looked around to see that he and Sailor Pluto were standing on a rooftop.

"I thought we were going to see Haruka?" He asked, confused. Pluto just gave him an annoying smile, and gestured. As he followed her hand motion, he saw Sailor Uranus bound over the edge of the roof, and stiffen in shock.

Ranma was about to dash forward to catch the stumbling Senshi, but she managed to recover herself in time and landed gracefully on the roof. "Ranma? What are you doing here?" She asked.

He shrugged, pointing over at Sailor Pluto, then looked over the blonde quickly. "You okay? Why'd ya transform? Is something wrong?" He asked, in rapid fire.

Uranus smirked. "It sounds like you're worried about me." She said, before relenting. "There was a demon attack at a local shrine. I stopped it with the help of some of the other Senshi." At Ranma's sigh of relief, she couldn't help but smile slightly.

The relieved moment was broken a second later, when the dark green haired Senshi cleared her throat. "Excuse me, but we have to go." She said, calmly.

Uranus looked at her, confused. She looked like a Senshi, but she wasn't one she'd ever heard of. She wasn't really an expert on the Senshi, though. "We're going somewhere?" She asked, raising her eyebrow slightly.

"Yeah." Ranma said, nodding. "Sailor Pluto," He briefly gestured at the taller Senshi, "Wants to talk to us about something."

Uranus considered objecting, but it appeared that Ranma trusted this Sailor Pluto, and maybe she could answer a few of her own questions about being a Senshi. "All right." She conceded, stepping forward towards the other two.

"You're ready?" Pluto asked, and waited for Uranus's nod before raising her staff again, causing the three to vanish.

HR.

Nodoka looked out the large windows in the living room of Setsuna Meiou's home, worried. Setsuna had vanished earlier in the day, citing school business, and both Ranma and Haruka had been out of school for almost an hour. 'I'm worrying too much.' She thought, but she'd already been kidnapped once while here, and Ranma and Haruka had been attacked in their sleep. Forcing her thoughts away from that particular train, the former Saotome walked back to the large chair at one corner of the room and sat down, reaching for her tea cup.

Just as she raised it to her lips, she heard the sound of a knock on the front door. She was so startled that she almost sloshed the tea over the edge of the cup, but quickly regained her composure and set it back down on the table next to the chair before getting up and walking to the door.

She let out a quiet sigh of relief when she opened the door to see a somewhat familiar blonde haired woman. "Mrs. Tenoh?" She asked.

"Hello, Saotome-san." The other woman said, smiling and bowing. "My husband is off on a business trip to Europe, and I decided to visit Haruka-chan myself. Is she in?"

"I'm afraid she's not back from classes yet." Nodoka said, considering correcting the other woman about her last name, but deciding that it wasn't polite. "Would you like to have a cup of tea with me and wait for her and Ranma to get home?"

Mrs. Tenoh nodded and entered the house, carefully sliding off her shoes and replacing them with house slippers before following Nodoka into the living room.

Nodoka herself was just glad for the company, though she still wondered where on earth Ranma and Haruka were.

HR.

When Ranma, Uranus and Pluto appeared, they found themselves in a misty grey place, no walls or ceiling visible in any direction. The oldest of the three, of course, had seen this place many times in her long life, but for the other two it was a quite new experience.

It brought a slightly amused smile to Pluto's face when the untransformed Ranma took a defensive stance in front of Uranus, scanning quickly for threats. "Where are we?" He asked, throwing a measuring look her way. Perhaps, she reflected, she should have warned them about where they were going.

"This is the time gate, my domain." She explained. "I brought you here because it would allow me to talk without interruption, and to show you some of the things you need to see.

"Time gate?" Uranus asked, taking a quick look around. "I don't see any gates around here."

Pluto nodded, before gesturing with her staff again, causing the mist in front of the three to clear and reveal the stone structure of the time gate. It was a massive, oval shaped device, glowing with several points of silver and gold light around the edges. It also had small glowing runes etched into its surface, and a portal, about three meters high, in the center. "This is the time gate." She said, gesturing to the massive device.

"Oh." The Senshi of wind said, lamely.

"So, erm, what did ya wanna talk to us about, Pluto?" Ranma asked, being far more used to seeing truly odd things burst from nowhere than Uranus was.

Pluto frowned, and began marshalling her thoughts as Ranma and Uranus threw questioning looks between themselves. Finally, she started speaking. "A while ago, a monster attacked Kasumi Tendo." She started. "This was the beginning of an attempted invasion of this planet by an extra-solar threat." Both of the others didn't seem to be saying anything, so the Senshi of time continued. "This threat is looking for three items called Talismans, kept in the hearts of human victims."

"So that's why they're taking those energy crystal things?" Ranma asked.

Pluto nodded. "They're called heart crystals, and if they find the right ones they can obtain the talismans, which will allow them to destroy this world."

Uranus paled. She'd wanted explanations, yes, but it felt like she was being thrown into the deep end without knowing how to swim. "So… we've got to stop them, right?" She asked, knowing how this sort of thing had usually worked in the action shows she'd watched as a kid.

Pluto looked uncomfortable. "That's… not exactly it." She said, slowly. "There's a prophesy, that there is a Messiah of light, and a Messiah of darkness. By the end of the conflict, one or the other must possess the grail."

"Wait, grail?" Ranma asked, the explanation surpassing his understanding by a fair bit at this point.

"Yes, if you re-unite all three talismans, the grail is formed." Pluto explained. "Basically, this means that we not only have to stop the enemy from getting the talismans, but we have to get them ourselves."

"Wait, these heart crystals are needed to keep people alive. What happens if one has a talisman in it?" Uranus asked, narrowing her eyes.

Pluto flinched, not wanting to say what she had to next. She knew that, without the thousands of years of past life memories, the two Senshi before her would likely balk at what she was about to say. "The human hosts will likely die." She said, quietly.

Ranma and Haruka both noticeably paled. "Ya mean we've gotta kill three people ta get these things?" Ranma asked, suddenly feeling a lot less trusting of Pluto than he had before.

"No, not three." Pluto said. "I have one of the talismans already."

"You mean you…" Uranus asked, horrified.

"No, I didn't." Pluto snapped, then sighed and began explaining. "During our past lives, the outer guard was given the talismans for safe keeping. Yours were sent into the future, sealed within human hearts and hidden so that dark forces couldn't find them." She shrugged, and reached up to the top of her staff, removing a small red orb, slightly darker in color than her eyes, from its end. "This is the third talisman, the garnet orb."

"Can't we just… I dunno, find out who's carrying these things and protect 'em so the bad guys can't get the talismans?" Ranma asked, really not liking the alternative.

Pluto shook her head sadly, and stepped forward. Laying her hand along the stone of the time gates, she concentrated. She couldn't control it well enough to show specific events, but the destruction of the planet was a pretty large probability line in the near future. The other two outer Senshi watched uneasily as the gate began to glow softly, and the central gap began to flicker.

Within seconds, the gap showed a vision that was all too familiar to Ranma, but that Haruka had never seen.

The blonde actually found herself drawing back to Ranma for reassurance as she saw the blasted and destroyed landscape of Tokyo, a harsh red sun glaring down upon the wreckage of a world. "This is what happens if we don't find the talismans and the Messiah of Light." Pluto said, certain for once of something.

Haruka was frightened by the sight, but she still wasn't sure of what Pluto proposed. She didn't like the idea of killing innocent people just because they happened to have what they needed. She looked up to Ranma's face, expecting to see the same uncertainty there, and did for a moment. Then, to her surprise, his face hardened.

"I see." The martial artist said, softly. "How do we find these talismans?"

Uranus looked at Ranma as if he'd grown a second head, and even Pluto's calm face broke into a surprised look for a second. Given how he'd reacted to almost killing Akira Kuonji, she'd expected his response to be much different. "You only have to use your Chi reading ability to check the heart crystals for readings similar to my garnet orb." She said, holding the small red object towards them.

Ranma nodded, concentrating on the ball for a moment. To his relief, neither of the two heart crystals he'd seen so far had anything like the orb in them.

"You can't be seriously considering this." Uranus said, finally recovering from her surprise, and finding anger their instead.

Ranma looked away from the blonde's indignant glare for a moment, before muttering something. "What was that?" She asked, walking up next to him.

"I've… seen that future before." He muttered. "Yeah, I don't like the idea 'o killin innocent people, and I'm gunna do my best ta try 'n find some other way ta solve the problem." He stopped talking for a moment, and then his eyes shot up to meet hers in a challenging look. "…but I ain't gunna let everyone on earth die just 'cuz we refused ta do what we had to."

Haruka stepped back, a little bit intimidated by the look in Ranma's eyes, but eventually started considering. "Is there any other way to do this?" She demanded, turning to Pluto. "If you can see the world getting destroyed, can't you see how it happens and let us stop it some other way?"

Pluto looked at the blonde Senshi sadly, and shook her head. "My control over the gate isn't good enough to do that… I'm sorry." She said, looking away, not able to continue meeting either of their looks. The fact that she didn't have full control over the gates had always bothered her, and now, when it was the most important, she felt deep shame for her lack of ability. She just had to hope that her main line candidates had had some method to their madness when they'd sent Neptune and Uranus out to check heart crystals.

Uranus nodded reluctantly, though it was obvious to the time Senshi that she didn't like what she was agreeing to. "I'll help." She said, finally.

Pluto sighed in relief, before struggling to hide her emotions again. "Thank you, both of you." She finally said, before concentrating on her subspace pocket for a moment. Almost instantly, two small black devices appeared in her hand. "Take these."

Uranus looked at the small black device incredulously as she took it from Pluto, while Ranma merely flipped his around in his hand. "A cell phone?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

Pluto nodded. "Slightly less odd looking than the inner Senshi's communicators. It will let me keep in touch with you and inform you of any attacks the enemy launches."

"Right…" Uranus said, uncertainly, before trying to find a place to put the phone. Unfortunately, her Senshi Uniform didn't really have pockets, and she was about to give up and just keep holding it when the phone disappeared. She jumped slightly, startled, but something in the back of her mind told her that she would be able to find it in her pocket when she transformed back to civilian form.

"Thanks, Pluto." Ranma said, sticking his communicator into one of the pockets in his pants. " Just… keep tryin ta find alternatives to the heart crystal thing, okay?"

Pluto nodded. "I will." She said, definitely, before teleporting the two other Senshi out of the gate chamber and to a secluded place.

With a very long sigh, the Senshi of Pluto let her shoulders slump. "That could have gone worse." She muttered, quietly, looking out across the gate chamber.

HR.

"Why is it always water?" Ranma asked, as Haruka, who had changed back from Uranus as soon as they'd arrived, struggled to suppress laughter. The two had exited Pluto's teleportation in a small dead end alley, and almost instantly Ranma had been hit by someone dumping their dirty wash water out of a fifth story apartment.

"Hmm, I guess I'm just lucky." The blonde quipped, the somber mood the conversation with Pluto had evoked in her seeming to have dispersed for the time being.

Ranma grimaced down at herself and her soaked clothes, though the silks would dry out within a short time. "It happened twice today." She grumbled.

"Aw, come on. It's not that bad." Haruka said, resting a hand on Ranma's shoulder. "We could go and get something to eat, if you want." Ranma was going to decline, but her stomach growled loudly, causing her to look sheepishly at the blonde. Haruka just laughed. "I'm paying, come on."

As Haruka offered an arm, Ranma looped her own arm through it, and let her chose the restaurant. "I'm the guy next time, got it?"

"Oh yeah, sure." Haruka said, obliviously, quite enjoying the feeling of Ranma on her arm.

HR.

"I can't believe you did that." Haruka muttered, as she and Ranma walked down the street towards Setsuna's house.

The redhead shrugged. "It worked, didn't it?"

"You flirted with him to get a free dessert." The blonde sputtered, throwing up her arms.

"And he was dumb enough to do it when I had an obvious date, right?" Ranma countered, evenly.

Haruka just blinked rapidly. "Are you sure you're actually a guy?" She asked, deadpan.

Ranma just rolled her eyes, but Haruka reached over, wrapping her arm around the shorter girl's shoulder. "We're almost home." She said.

Ranma just nodded as the two turned onto the path leading to the house. Much to both of their surprise, as they walked up the path they saw the front door opening, letting out Haruka's mother.

The older woman looked at the scene, her daughter with her arm wrapped tightly around the upper torso of a short red haired girl, and began to frown deeply. Marching forward quickly as Nodoka exited behind her, rather puzzled, she walked up to Haruka angrily.

"Hi, Mom." Haruka said, smiling at her.

"'Hi Mom?'" Her mother replied, glaring at the younger blonde, who backed up a bit and let Ranma go. "What are you doing with this… girl… when you are engaged, young lady?" She demanded.

At that comment, Ranma started giggling softly as Haruka sputtered.

END.

Notes: I tried to find an image of the time gates. I failed. My prereader tried as well, and failed, but he actually seemed to have a clue. He seems to think the gate looks like the guardian of forever from Star Trek TOS, so that's what it looks like in this fic.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed. Please R&R.


	37. Chapter 37, What has to be done

Yay! Update! I've got a few notes at the end, but for now I'll let you cut to the chase.

Chapter 37, what needs to be done.

Setsuna walked down the street, her head full of thoughts and plans for the next few days or weeks. She'd spent the last week pre-occupied with her attempts to figure out how to deal with Ranma and Haruka, and now that she discovered that the situation was, at least temporarily, nothing to worry about her mind was much clearer.

Of course, she also cursed Ranma for making her come up with dozens of arguments for why the heart crystals needed to be inspected, and then just agreeing to do it almost instantly. Much of her skill over the years had been in trying to predict future events, even without the gates, and the new Neptunian Senshi seemed to confound her every time she tried it.

Haruka's reaction had been more predictable, and she imagined that the Senshi of Uranus would eventually need convincing, though it was possible that they could find another way to stop the new threat. Personally, she wouldn't mind that one bit, and with how things had been going lately she began to think it was possible.

As she thought this, a small smile began to appear on the face of the guardian of time, and she pushed the front door of her home open. "I'm home." She announced calmly, though she was surprised not to hear Nodoka's returning "Welcome home."

Stepping into the living room, she learned why she hadn't heard it. Nodoka was looking worriedly at the couch, where Haruka was kneeling, concernedly checking an older blonde haired woman, who was out cold, for injuries. Ranma was standing off to the side, in male form, and looking sheepish.

"I can't leave you alone for even a second, can I?" Setsuna asked, causing Ranma and Nodoka to look over to her.

HR.

Kasumi Tendo smiled to herself as she studied her reflection in the mirror. She was getting everything ready now for the day ahead. She knew that what she'd asked Ranma to do earlier today was something he wouldn't normally help with, but she was hoping that the boy would do it for her, and even if he didn't, it would still be nice to be dressed well tomorrow.

Looking herself over, the brown haired girl combed her fingers through her freshly washed hair again, and studied the nice dress that Unazuki had helped her pick out. The other girl didn't know why Kasumi wanted to be all dressed up, but she'd had a lot of fun helping her out.

Looking to the side of the table, Kasumi blushed at what was sitting there. An item that she'd have to bring with her the next day, if only so that Tofu could decide for himself what to do when she finally broke through his shyness. She blushed fiercely at the thought of that, but shook it off, firming her resolve. She had left home in order to get what she wanted, and she wasn't going to stop now… unless, of course, Tofu decided he wanted her to, but…

Frowning worriedly, Kasumi began to remove her outfit, carefully laying it out for the next day. Whatever would come would come, she decided.

HR.

"You sure you're all right, Mom?" Haruka asked, sitting behind the older woman at the kitchen table as she shakily had a cup of tea that Nodoka had made.

"I'm fine, Haruka-Chan." Her mother said. "It's just… a lot to take in, that's all." Inwardly, she was of two minds about what she had seen in the past hour. She knew that some very odd things existed in Tokyo proper. Having seen the news, it would be impossible to not know that, but now she learned that her daughter was engaged to one. Still, the way Haruka was looking at her so worriedly also allayed one of her fears that she'd had ever since the girl had run away from home. Still, she had some questions to ask.

"I am going to have a VERY long talk with your father when he gets home." Mrs. Tenoh finally said, after sitting silent for a moment.

Haruka laughed. "Yeah, I thought he'd told you." She explained. "I'm sorry that you passed out like that, but people usually don't believe when Ranma just tells them about it."

The other just nodded, taking a sip of her cup of tea. She looked off into the distance, deep in thought. Initially, she'd found Ranma a rather rough, though still acceptable young man, but now she started to re-evaluate him, or her. She wanted to treat the person Haruka was currently with harshly, if only because, at least half the time, her daughter was still with another woman, which would be bad for the family image, but then she stopped herself. Was that really being fair? She'd accepted Ranma originally because she'd thought that her daughter had finally 'seen the light,' and that was pretty well it.

"Haruka, I want to know something, and I want you to answer me truthfully." She finally said, coming out of her deep thoughts. The younger Tenoh jumped, as if startled, but then nodded. "How do you feel about Ranma?"

Haruka wanted to respond immediately with something, but she wasn't sure what to say. She let her mouth open and close a few times, then started slowly. "He's… very different." She finally said, and seeing her mother's raised eyebrow, continued. "It's hard to explain. I mean, I don't even know what's going on half the time, and I know we've got interests that only really converge on one thing. He's uncultured, not very book smart, and, well, he's a guy." She said, plainly, then smirked. "At least half the time."

Her mother was about to say something, but Haruka continued before she could. "I don't know, really. There's just something about him, and her, and.. me…" She trailed off, not quite sure of how to finish.

"I see." Her mother said, looking mildly troubled. 'Damn.' She thought, and then sighed. "That's all I wanted to know, though I'm going to have to talk to Ranma at some point... Now, how about you tell me what's been going on with you since I last visited?"

HR.

"Yer mom get home all right?" Ranma asked, as Haruka entered the house, slipping her jacket off, after returning the older woman home.

"Yeah." She replied. "Good thing I drove her, though. A storm started half way there."

Ranma merely nodded, before starting into the kitchen. Haruka followed him, seeing that the collection of scrolls that he'd been looking through on Sunday was once again sprawled all over the table. "What's up?" She asked.

He frowned. "I've been lookin through these things ta see if they mention those heart crystals Pluto mentioned anywhere."

"Any luck?" She asked, sitting down at the kitchen table as he took a seat at the other side in front of an unrolled scroll.

"None so far. Some interesting stuff involving Chi charging and storage, but nothing about crystallizing an entire aura." Ranma muttered, going above Haruka's head pretty quickly.

'And I said he was uneducated?' she thought, smiling ruefully to herself.

"I did notice that there's something missing, though." He said, causing her to jump. "When I took the pile out of the closet I put it in on Sunday, I noticed it looked a little different."

"Oh, um, well…" Haruka said, before running upstairs for a moment.

Ranma looked after her, confused, before she returned holding a dusty old scroll. He raised an eyebrow, looking over it. "I thought you didn't want anything to do with this one?" He asked.

She just smirked. "I thought it could be useful later on." Then, her expression changed to a sheepish one. "Turns out I can't read ancient Chinese." She admitted. "I'll help you with the ones I can read, though."

"Right…" Ranma said, blushing and looking away. "Let's just get this done okay?" She nodded and the two got to work.

HR.

"Come on, wake up." Ranma heard a gentle voice at his ear, and felt himself being shaken.

"Guh?" He mumbled, batting the hand away.

"You're going to be late for school, come on!" The voice repeated, this time sounding a little irritated. Ranma reluctantly opened his eyes, to see a slightly amused Nodoka in front of him.

"Wha?" He asked, raising his head and looking around to see that he was sitting at the kitchen table, across a massive pile of papers from Haruka, who was blinking herself to wakefulness as well.

"We fell asleep at the table?" She asked, surprised. "Haven't done that since I was cramming for the college entrance exams."

Ranma yawned and cracked his back. "Happens ta me a lot, usually 'cuz the books are boring." He admitted, before he saw a bowl of rice being set before him. "Thanks, aunt Nodoka." He mumbled.

"Well, maybe I shouldn't cook anymore." Came a slightly annoyed sounding voice, causing him to look around and see Setsuna wearing an apron in front of the stove. "That's different." He commented, blinking at her.

Haruka looked up at the clock, and frowned. "We don't have much time. I guess we'll have to go to class in these clothes." She mumbled, and combed one hand through her hair as she picked up her own chopsticks with the other.

The two didn't talk any more for several more moments, while they both shoveled down food at a pace that only Ranma normally managed, and then ran out the door.

Nodoka sighed as they disappeared out the door. "Sometimes, I envy them for being able to go to school again." She said, then smiled. "Then I see things like that, and I come to my senses."

"Setsuna laughed, and hung up her apron. "Well, I'm going to have to head off soon as well. I'll see you when I get home." She said, before leaving. Nodoka merely nodded.

HR.

"Hello, Ranma-kun." Ranma jumped as he heard the voice, having not heard Kasumi coming. That, of course, was one consequence of spending an entire night propped up in a kitchen chair, but he shook off his surprise as he turned towards her.

As he finished turning, his mouth dropped. "K-Kasumi?" He asked, stuttering a bit.

"Oh, that isn't funny, Ranma-kun." She chastised. "You shouldn't make fun of Tofu-sensei's problem like that."

"I'm not!" Ranma objected. "You just look… different." He finished. He was about to say that she looked cute, but since the last time he'd said that had resulted in most of Ukyo's problems, he kept quiet.

"Well, yes. I am wearing something different today. Do you think Tofu-sensei will like it?" She asked, spinning around to reveal her knee length skirt and well fitted white blouse.

"Um, yeah." Ranma said, suddenly reminded of what Kasumi had asked him to do the night before. "Ya… still wanna go through with this?"

Kasumi nodded, seeming to be radiating confidence. "I'm sure."

Ranma sighed. "Well, hope the doc doesn't kill me." He mumbled. "All right, I'll help ya out."

"Thank you, Ranma!" She exclaimed, and then leaned forward, grabbing him in a tight hug. His pigtail stood on end for a moment, and he waved his arms around frantically. This arm waving only got worse when he saw someone behind Kasumi.

'I'm doomed.' He thought, as Haruka walked up to the two. Oddly enough, though, the blonde didn't pull a hyper-dimensional weapon of pain out of nowhere, she just rose one eyebrow.

Within about five seconds, Kasumi had pulled away from Ranma, seeing that he'd gone board stiff and started shaking. Instantly after getting let go, Ranma started babbling frantically. "Haruka, it's not what yer thinking, really. This is Kasumi, she's Akane's older sister."

Haruka looked at him oddly for a moment, before turning to Kasumi. "You're Akane's sister? Nice to meet you."

Ranma stopped babbling and stood, slightly shocked at how Haruka was acting. 'Why haven't I been hit yet?' He thought. Admittedly, Haruka hadn't raised a hand against him other than in sparring, but this was a pretty clear cut case according to all he knew.

Kasumi bowed to the blonde, and looked the newcomer over for a moment. She was puzzled as to why Ranma would act so oddly when one of his friends showed up, until she noticed that the 'boy' in front of her had no Adam's apple. "Nice to meet you as well." She said. "Ranma, do you mind making introductions?"

Ranma didn't move or speak for a moment, before snapping out of it. "Um, yeah." He said, unsteadily, it slowly dawning on him that Haruka had actually observed the situation without jumping to the worst possible conclusion. He slowly started to smile, thanking whatever Kami had decided to stop playing games with him since he got to this district, and spoke. "This is Haruka, we're living at the same place, and, well, kinda engaged."

"Oh, you're Haruka." Kasumi said, surprised. "Ranma told me about you."

"Yeah, he's told me a bit about you too." Haruka said, before her watch beeped. "Crap, I gotta get to next class." She said, looking at Ranma worriedly, but noticing that he was starting to act more normal now. "I'll see you after school, okay Ranma?"

"Yeah." He said, nodding. "See ya then."

After Haruka had left the area, Kasumi looked at Ranma. "I'm sorry about hugging you like that. I just wasn't thinking…" She trailed off, then shook her head. "I'll see you at lunch still, right?" She asked, hopefully.

"Yeah, don't worry." Ranma replied. Kasumi merely nodded, and then left with a spring in her step.

HR.

Shampoo checked the last of the supplies in her backpack for the second time, comparing them to a carefully made list and nodded in satisfaction. She was ready, and the rest of the hunting party that had been assembled was also doing final checks of their equipment. Luckily for her, the high council had accepted her explanation for her failure, and she had regained at least some of her face with the tribe, or she wouldn't be able to mount the operation she was preparing.

Stepping out of the small house she had been assigned in the village, she looked over the rest of the group, but scowled when she saw the elder that lead it. Though she'd been given another chance, it hadn't been with total freedom, and she was just a part of someone else's group.

"Shampoo, you are ready?" Elder Bidet asked, stomping her staff down on the ground.

"Yes, elder." The purple haired girl said, bowing.

"Good, then we will go." Shampoo started walking, and ignored the disdainful stairs that three out of the five other amazons that were going with them were giving her. She would get her Airen, and they WOULD respect her again.

HR.

"Hey, doc!" Ono Tofu turned as he heard the call from down the hall, seeing Ranma running towards him with a bunch of books under one arm.

"Ranma?" He asked, surprised to see the younger boy, especially since most of his classes were in a different part of the school. "Is there something wrong?"

"Nah." Ranma said. "Just wanted ta ask ya some questions. I've got a buncha biology stuff in science class that I just don't get."

"I see." Tofu said, nodding. He found it odd that Ranma was coming to him for help, especially since most biology related subjects were actually well studied by martial artists, but he didn't mind helping. "I'd be glad to help you out for the remainder of the lunch hour."

"Thanks." Ranma said, gratefully. "There's a classroom down on the third level that's free."

"That'll be fine." Tofu said. "Let's pass the Cafeteria first though, all right?"

Ranma nodded, and the two started to walk.

Their travel took place mostly in silence until after Tofu had gotten his lunch, the older man surprised that the younger hadn't gotten anything. A few minutes later, though, Ranma surprised him by asking him something. "Doc, if I knew a way ta get ya over your Kasumi problem, would you want it?" He asked, looking away slightly.

Tofu stopped, his glasses fogging up for a moment before he blinked the clouds away with a mighty effort. "Why are you asking me about that?" He asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"I'm just curious." Ranma said. "I've just gotten access ta some of the ol' freak's techniques, an' I think some of them could help." He was lying through his teeth, but thankfully Tofu was too busy fighting off his usual haze to care.

"To answer your question," He said, turning left only to plow into a brick wall, "Being able to hear K… Ka… her name without… well, you know… I would give almost anything for it." He sighed.

"Good to hear." Ranma said, suddenly sounding a lot happier for some reason. "And doc, sorry 'bout this."

Tofu was about to ask him what he was sorry about, when he noticed, too late, Ranma going for one of his paralysis pressure points. He started working the Chi based counter for the point almost immediately, but Ranma had already scooped him up in his arms and started running.

By the time Tofu had reversed the point's effects enough to ask what in the world the boy was doing, he was already being pushed through a door into a slightly dark classroom. The door slammed behind him, and he fell against it with a thump, hearing it click as the lock was turned. "What in the world…?" He asked, before twitching his hand to be sure he could move it, and reaching to flick on the room's lights.

As they came up, he said one thing. "K-K-Kasumi, what a coincidence meeting you here, of all places!"

HR.

Ranma walked into the Peeking duck, slightly worried. He had the afternoon off today, which suited him quite well, as he had to talk to Cologne about something rather important. Looking around the restaurant, he blinked in surprise as he saw something he hadn't been expecting. In the middle of the room, carefully balancing several bowls of hot looking Ramen was Akane Tendo.

The girl's body dripped with sweat, but she looked reasonably steady on her feet. That was, of course, until she saw Ranma and twitched in shock. All of the bowls that she had been balancing began to tip over, but she frantically rebalanced to save them, except for one that she'd been trying to hold on two chopsticks in her mouth, which tipped ever so slightly forward and started sliding.

Quickly, Ranma dashed forward and caught the bowl, seeing a tiny tag on its side that said where it was to go and using a quick hand motion to send it spinning to its proper resting place.

Akane spat out the two chopsticks, and spoke. "Ranma?" She asked, evidently very surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"I have ta talk to the ol' ghoul." He said, and then ducked as a staff came flying out of the restaurant's kitchen. Unfortunately, he didn't duck far enough and it thwacked him in the side of the head. "Ouch.. anyways, what're you doin here?"

"Nabiki thought it would be good training." Akane explained, walking over to a table and tilting a bowl carefully off of her arm to land correctly. "I just find it annoying."

Ranma smirked. "Now ya know how I felt during that whole mess with the phoenix pill." At Akane's scowl, he just laughed. "Since I just got hit with a staff, Cologne's back there, right?"

Akane nodded, and Ranma walked past her. As he reached the door into the back of the restaurant though, he turned back. "I know the grand master's supposed ta be impartial, and stuff, but good luck Tomboy." He said, smiling.

"Thanks." Akane replied, turning back to what she was doing before.

HR.

"So, what brings you back so soon, Ranma?" Cologne asked, not looking up from stirring a pot full of Ramen.

"I need ta ask ya something about auras." He replied, simply.

"Trying to learn a new technique?" She asked, looking up towards him in interest.

"No, I wanted to know if you knew anything about heart crystals." Ranma replied, and was rather startled at the reaction the statement got. Cologne stopped stirring, and turned a shade paler.

"Mousse?" She called, causing the duck cursed man to poke his head out of the stock room, where he was apparently taking inventory.

"Yeah?" He asked, his glasses perched on his nose.

"Could you please take over this pot for me?" Cologne asked, and Ranma was surprised that she was being so polite to the master of hidden weapons.

"I'm a little busy back here…" Mousse said, but trailed off when he saw that Cologne was standing next to Ranma, and looking rather serious. "I'll be right out."

"Thank you." Cologne said, then turned to Ranma. "And as for you, we should talk in private."

Ranma was about to ask what was wrong, when Cologne set off out the restaurant's back door and into the small alley outside. He felt a tingling against his Chi aura, and realized that she was checking the area for people listening.

"Precisely where did you hear about heart crystals?" Cologne demanded, piercing Ranma with a serious stare.

"There are some monsters stealin 'em." Ranma explained. "You know something about 'em?"

"Given the amount of time the Amazon tribe has spent studying Chi auras, we know a lot about them, but most of it is classified to the elders only." Cologne explained. "If a monster is taking them from humans, then it's vitally important that it be stopped."

"The Senshi are defeating the monsters." Ranma said. "That's not what I need ta know about 'em for."

"What is it you want to know?" She asked.

"I wanna try and figure out a way to look at a person's heart crystal without havin ta take it out of their body. I've figured out that they're just the person's whole aura compressed into a single point, but I've tried just mentally comparing the aura with the crystals, and something seems ta be missing."

"A heart crystal isn't just the aura compressed to a point." Cologne explained. "It is one's entire essence, extracted and compacted into that small shape. Without a heart crystal, the human body cannot produce new Chi at all, and will die within hours. As for being able to see one without extraction… there may be ways, but again, they are almost as dangerous as knowing how to extract one and I need to know WHY you want to know, or I can't tell you any more."

"There's something hidden inside 'o certain people's heart crystals, and the Senshi and their enemies both need it. I'm trying ta help the Senshi find it." Ranma explained, though Cologne could easily tell that he was holding something back.

Pulling her staff from behind her back, she whapped him upside the head again. "Boy, you are not telling me everything, and this kind of thing is serious. If the council ever even heard that I was talking to you about it, I would be executed! Now, you WILL tell me everything, and then I MAY help you."

Ranma sighed, and thought for a moment. It seemed that Cologne did, indeed, know a lot of what he wanted to learn in order to somehow avoid killing people, but she was a really stubborn old ghoul. Grumbling, he let his own aura out of his body, ensuring that the area was safe himself, and Cologne noticed. "You gotta promise me that ya don't tell anyone what I'm about ta tell ya." He said, softly.

The old woman nodded, and waited.

"This thing the Senshi are lookin for, there's actually two of them, and if we don't find them the whole planet's gunna be destroyed." Ranma explained, flatly. "I've seen it, an' it ain't pretty. Right now, all the Senshi can do is wait 'till their enemies take one 'o the crystals and inspect it to see if it's got what they need in it. That's really dangerous, especially for the victim, so I'm tryin to find an easier way."

Cologne nodded. "That is a worth while goal, to be sure, but how do you know the people who claim to be the Senshi aren't lying to you?"

Ranma cursed. He couldn't prove that he had accurate information any way short of dragging Pluto here to talk to her, and even then she could just accuse Pluto of being fake. Then, he got an idea. "I'm Ranma, right?"

"What?" The elder blinked. "Of course you are. What kind of stupid question is that?" She snapped, clearly annoyed. "Your aura and body language identify you clear as day."

Good." Ranma sighed. "I'm holdin ya to that 'not telling anyone' promise." Gulping nervously, he reached into one pocket in his Chinese pants, and withdrew the Neptune henshin pen. Cologne just looked at him oddly for a moment, as he raised it high. "Neptune Planet Power, Make up!" He called, and the water enveloped his body.

Cologne blinked, and then blinked again as the water cleared from Ranma's form, revealing a red haired woman, quite obviously Ranma's female form but her mind kept shying away from making the connection for some reason, wearing a green and blue sailor uniform. "N… Neptune, you said?" She asked, her mouth going dry.

"Yes, I'm sailor Neptune." The Senshi said.

Cologne slowly nodded, and then took her cane out again. Neptune flinched, expecting to be smacked in the side of the head, but instead, Cologne whapped herself with the wooden device. "Yes, that definitely hurt." She pronounced. "You…. Lady Neptune…. This…" She then broke down, and started to make a peculiar noise that was somewhere between laughing and crying.

The Senshi just stood there, blinking as one of her Sensei proceeded to have a breakdown.

HR.

"All right, how about we try this again?" Dr. Osamu Taikuchi rubbed the bridge of his nose below his glasses, and flipped over another card. "Mr. Kuno, tell me what you see."

Tatewaki Kuno sighed, looking at the doctor in clear annoyance. "We have traveled this ground before. Tis obviously a picture of the beauteous Akane Tendo!"

Osamu sighed, leaning his head forward to bang into the table. "Yes, right…" He muttered. This case was, quite possibly, the most annoying thing he'd ever had to deal with in his life. Every time he'd asked the boy to identify images from random patterns, they had something to do with either Akane Tendo, a girl with bright red hair in a pigtail, Kendo, or a foul sorcerer of some sort. "Well, Mr. Kuno… I believe that I've come to a final conclusion in regards to your treatment." He finally said, after taking several deep breaths to keep himself from exploding.

"You have finally come to the conclusion that I, the scion of the Kuno line, am of fine mental stock, correct?" The boy asked, puffing his chest out arrogantly, despite the straight jacket that they had put him in when he'd attempted to assault one of the orderlies who just happened to have blue-black hair.

"No, Mr. Kuno." Osamu said, simply. "I've come to the conclusion that you have an unhealthy and obsessive fixation on the feudal era, Akane Tendo, and this… pigtailed girl of yours. Furthermore, this fixation is a danger to anyone around you who is REMOTELY similar to either of them." As Kuno's face fell in disappointment, the frustrated doctor took far more delight in his next statement than he really should. "I'm transferring you to another psychologist who is better equipped to deal with your unique condition than I am. Good bye!"

He then turned, knocked on the door to Tatewaki's holding cell, and walked off into the complex.

END.

Okay, the note I wanted to cover here is about Setsuna's actions. It seems that she's being stupid, and in some ways she is, but a LOT of that is because we already know what's going on, and it seems obvious to us in retrospect.

Keep in mind, though, that at least one great treasure of the silver melenium has already been found by extracting it from the bodies of innocents. As precidents go, it's been established that you can find Silver Milenium artifacts in very odd places.

Also, recall that she has access to alternate universes, and though she can't see exactly who has the artifacts, she knows that almost all of those universes have Neptune and Uranus searching for them. Now, given ONLY that information, it does make a certain amount of sense for her to do what she's doing.

Also, I've been told what the time gates look like. At least for the moment, I'm ignoring it simply because I like my visual better. Sorry.

Now, I shall shut up.


	38. Chapter 38, Of Cats and Bags

And another Chapter! A long'un for me, too. just under 6K words, according to MS word. Well, I seem to be on a roll this week.

Chapter 38, Of Cats and Bags.

Sailor Neptune looked down at the old woman laying on the ground, sighing and kneeling down next to her. "You okay, ol' ghoul?" She asked, forgetting to be polite in her concern for one of her better teachers.

Cologne's response was instant, over a year of reflex causing her to snap her head up and change her staff's target from her head to Neptune's, before she caught herself and blinked at the girl. "Clever." She conceded, sighing. "I apologize… some times, even I am blindsided by what happens in this place." She muttered.

"Yeah, that's fine, but what was with the head banging?" Neptune asked, standing up again and crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"You mean that you don't realize?" The elder asked, surprised. Seeing Neptune's shrug, she considered. Perhaps things weren't as bad as she'd thought, even if she HAD, apparently, been trying to subjugate the consort of the warrior of legend for the last year and a half. She needed more information, but still, now her tactics would have to change. "Have you lost your memory of the times of silver?" She asked, simply.

Neptune blinked for a moment, then shrugged. "If ya mean what happened in my past life, yeah, most 'o it's gone." Frowning darkly, she continued. "Aside from remembering how I died." She shuddered.

Cologne nodded, internally issuing a mighty sigh of relief. Yes, things were much less bad for her if she was still dealing with Ranma, albeit on a vastly complicated scale, than some ancient from beyond the mists of time who had been secretly manipulating her for years. Seeing the redhead's expression getting steadily more worried and confused, she had to smile slightly. "Don't worry about my previous actions." She said. "I assure you that I won't repeat them."

Neptune sighed in relief. "So, ya wanna tell me why you reacted like that?" She asked.

Cologne nodded. "You deserve an explanation." She said, and then gestured for the Senshi to sit down near her. To her surprise, Neptune sat in the traditional feminine fashion to avoid flashing panties, and she wondered if that was part of being who she was or if Nodoka or someone else had finally hammered some feminine modesty through Ranma's thick skull. "The Amazon tribe is very distantly descended from another group. Many of our memories of them are hazy, but we carry legends of a mighty war in the heavens between a tribe of demons and the armies of eight or nine other worlds. When the tribe began to hear of astronomical research in the early part of this millennium, we realized that these wars must have been fought on the other planets of the solar system, and the names of the leaders of the forces we fought for made sense."

Neptune started to fidget, and Cologne smiled, once more re-affirming that she was still dealing with Ranma underneath and the redhead was giving a clear 'get on with it' signal.

"What it all comes down to," She said directly, "Is that a long time ago our tribe's ancestors were taking part in this war, under the command of a woman named Lady Uranus." Seeing Neptune start in recognition, she made a mental note to ask her about it later. "Over the millennia since, we have passed down the legend of the battle and its participants, as we hoped that they would one day return."

"So what, is Lady Uranus your god or something?" Neptune asked, and Cologne now knew that the girl knew who Uranus was and was hoping to use that fact to keep any Amazons off of her back.

Cologne shook her head. "She is just a great warrior, but that in itself grants one much respect." She explained, and then looked down. "Attacking her, or one who she is close to, would be frowned upon heavily by the village as a whole."

"'N you're worried 'cuz of the stuff you and Shampoo tried back in Nerima." Neptune realized, and Cologne noted that she hadn't even considered Mousse. At Cologne's nod, she shrugged. "Don't worry 'bout it. At least I don't mind it anymore, I mean it never actually worked 'n ya did train me ta beat some of my worst enemies. Plus, ya told me what was goin on when ya coulda lied."

Cologne couldn't help but smile in a mixture of pride, disbelief and annoyance at her best and worst student. "Lady Neptune," She started, as her reaction to trying to compare the girl to Ranma earlier had told her that some disguise magic was in work that she didn't want to compromise by mentioning the girl by name, "You never cease to amaze me."

Neptune smirked for a moment, her ego shining through, before the smirk changed to a fond smile. "Well, yer the best Sensei I've ever had, if that means anythin." She contributed.

If Cologne were any younger, and didn't have an image to maintain as a wise old elder, she would have hugged the exasperating child for that statement, but instead she just nodded as if it was a known fact. "As for the techniques you asked about… I may be able to teach them to Ranma, however the training times are very long, and even I mostly only know of the theory. It may take time."

"Neptune smiled. "Thanks, elder." She said, and then stood. "Guess I'd better get outta here ta…" She gestured down at her Senshi fuku, and Cologne nodded in understanding.

"Please send Ranma back here when you leave." She said, noting that someone had just walked up to the back door and looked curiously out.

Mousse was just in time to see one of the Sailor Senshi leap up onto a building roof nearby, and blinked repeatedly before Cologne spoke. "Well, boy, have you had enough of a look at what I am doing? I wouldn't leave the Tendo girl in there alone with the food for too long."

Cologne cackled as she saw Mousse's face flush bright red, and he hurried back inside as Ranma, still female, turned down the alley and started walking towards her. "All right, sonny boy." She said,. "Let's get to work."

Ranma smiled back to her and nodded, before sitting down crossed-legged, attentively listening.

HR.

Haruka stuck several books into her storage locker, shutting the door and twisting its combination lock expertly in order to ensure that it was locked. As she turned around, slipping the shoulders of her brown jacket into place over her white shirt, she saw a brown haired woman coming towards her, one of the teachers walking next to her.

"Haruka-San!" The woman called, stopping the blonde as she started to turn away.

"Yes, Kasumi-san?" She asked, politely, recognizing the woman from earlier that day.

"Have you seen Ranma-kun around?" Kasumi asked, while the eyes of the man who was walking next to her narrowed.

Haruka shrugged. "Sorry, Kasumi, but I don't see him much all day at school. We're in different grades." She explained, apologetically. "Why, is something the matter?"

Kasumi shook her head. "No, nothing is wrong, but can you tell him that Tofu and I want to talk to him tomorrow?" She asked.

"Yeah, sure." Haruka replied, before waiting to see if the other had anything else to say. Kasumi was pleasant to talk to, but she had some things to do at home in preparation for a race, as well as some more scrolls to look through that she'd noticed the night before.

"I will see you again." Kasumi said, cheerfully, before waving and walking away.

Haruka shrugged, and started to head home. As she did so, she once again thought over what had happened recently. She did this a lot while she had some alone time, since it helped keep her grounded against the strange stuff that had been happening lately, so she wasn't that annoyed that Ranma had apparently split at lunch. This time, though, she had something slightly unsettling to think over.

The night before, during their date, she had asked Ranma a question that she wasn't sure how to take the answer to. For the most part, they had tried to keep the topic light and away from the ordeal that had directly proceeded it, but she had to know one thing, and had asked the redhead why she'd been so willing to take the heart crystals when she'd gotten so upset at what she'd almost done to Ukyo's father the week before.

Ranma's words still rang in her ears. "Ukyo's dad wasn't necessary." When she'd asked if anyone else had been 'necessary,' Ranma had told her about Saffron. The story had been fascinating, but it also revealed that Ranma had some hidden sides that she wasn't sure she even wanted to find out about.

Still, she had to admit that the destruction of the entire planet was a pretty good motive for taking a few lives, if there ever WAS a good motive for doing that. She grimaced, as the thought left a bad taste in her mouth, and re-affirmed her desire to go through all of the scrolls she could read, carefully, for any way to stop herself from having to kill another human being. If she'd had any other resources available, she would have used them too, but the only mentions of heart crystals she could find in the school's quite extensive libraries had been some mushy romance novels.

The blonde haired warrior was snapped out of her contemplation of unpleasant things, however, when she turned into the front walk of her home, seeing Ranma standing there, a smile fit to split his face dominating it. "What's got you so happy?" She asked.

He bounced up to her, and only kept himself from shouting for fear of revealing his secrets to everyone in the area. "I've found a technique that'll let me see a heart crystal without havin 'ta remove it!" He whispered, excitedly.

Haruka blinked, then did so a second time. "Really?" She asked, excited as well.

Ranma nodded rapidly. "The Ol' ghoul's got a lot of info about it." He said, before frowning. "She says it'll take me months to learn it." Seeing Haruka's downcast expression, he smirked. "'means I'll have ta take a few weeks, is all. After that, though…"

Haruka didn't need to hear any more, throwing her arms around Ranma and planting a passionate and deep kiss on his lips. He squirmed for a moment, and then responded. The kiss was quite enjoyable, to either side, even if he was currently a guy.

"What was that for?" He asked, gasping for breath when they parted.

She just shrugged, and grabbed him by the arm. "C'mon, let's go."

Ranma blinked, very uncertain, but sighed and followed Haruka inside, his brain still slightly too full of fog to think correctly.

HR.

The next day, Ranma was whistling to himself happily as he walked to school next to Haruka. She knew what made him so happy, and was considering whistling too, as it had been quite enjoyable for her as well. She'd started out thinking that dating Ranma's male form half the time would be unpleasant, a chore that she would have to do in order to be with the martial artist, but figured that sacrifices had to be made, and he was doing as much as she.

The last few nights out, however, she had to admit that she'd been having fun. Perhaps not as much as if she'd had the little redhead snuggled under one arm, but being with male Ranma was certainly not a torturous experience, and last night had proved it. They had hit a club Haruka had found in the city in celebration of the new heart crystal technique he was learning, after she'd insisted on some sparring so that she could begin to train to learn similar things, and the night had been full of fun.

From the drag race with some show-off in an American muscle car on the way to the club, to the dancing, she'd had a blast and so had he.

Still, they now had to go to school, which marred both of their moods slightly. "Oh yeah," She commented. "Kasumi said that she wanted to talk to you today."

Ranma blinked, confused for a moment, and then his eyes widened. "Oh…" He said. "Hope her date with Tofu went well."

Haruka blinked. "Tofu, that a guy with really thick glasses and a brown training Gi?" She asked. At Ranma's nod, she smiled. "I think it did, he was with her when she asked."

Ranma gulped, looking distinctly nervous.

"Okay, what happened?" Haruka asked, having picked up that nervous looks from Ranma usually meant either real trouble or something funny.

"If it's Tofu who wants ta talk to me, I'm a dead man." He muttered.

"Why?" She asked. "He seemed pretty happy to me."

"Well, I sorta paralyzed him and tossed him into a room with a girl he really liked, but kept breaking down stuttering over yesterday." Ranma said, then seeing Haruka's expression change to one of mirth, he continued. "Then, I locked the door, 'n only she had the key."

"Oh." Haruka said, then broke down laughing.

"It's not funny. The doc can still be mean in a fight if he wants to." Ranma grumbled, but Haruka just kept snickering as the two parted ways.

HR.

"Aw, they're so cute!" Usagi exclaimed, cuddling a tiny kitten to her cheek as Mamoru stood behind her.

"I thought you'd like them." He said, a small smile on his lips. Earlier in the morning, he'd found the girl sitting despondently on a bench, apparently having been so depressed that she'd skipped school. Usagi was late for class a lot of the time, but she was, if not a good student, at least a reasonably determined one after she woke up, so he'd immediately gotten concerned when he'd seen her.

It had seemed that the loss of her transformation device two days earlier had hit her very hard, so unable to think of anything else to do to help, he had taken her hear to help cheer her up. "A lot of the stray cats in the neighborhood come here, and these kittens were just born recently." He explained. "I thought you'd like them."

"I do!" Usagi squealed, happily petting one of the little creatures, who sat comfortably in her lap. "But, you said these are stray cats?"

"Yeah." Mamoru responded. "But someone always comes around and feeds them, so they know to stay here, and a lot of them get adopted."

Usagi nodded, going back to playing with the kittens, and a plan began to form in her brain to do some good, even without her broach.

HR.

Ranma walked through the halls of the Infinity Academy, looking for Dr. Tofu and Kasumi during his lunch break. He'd started at the top of the building, and worked his way down while chewing on a stick of Pocky. He'd reached the end of the stick long ago, and was now near the bottom of the building. "…girl isn't here to protect you this time, and I SAW you do it!" He heard someone yell, and looked over in the direction he'd heard the sound coming from to see the class where he normally took the theory portion of wood shop.

Frowning, as he was pretty sure he recognized the voice that had spoken, he stepped into the room, and sure enough, there was a group of angry looking boys surrounding a very dark purple haired girl. "Is this a weekly event, or something?" He asked, stepping into the room.

The boys looked up, startled, and backed away, trying to look innocent as the girl cowered.

"We aren't doing anything wrong!" one of them blurted, as startled children are wont to do, but Ranma crossed his arms. "Like I… my sister," he corrected himself, "said. Ya could at least have the decency to harass her one on one."

"But I…" One of the boys said, unsure what to say. If this boy was the brother to the redhead who had stopped him from beating on the freak a few weeks ago, he wasn't sure what to say.

"I don't particularly care." Ranma replied, shortly. "I don't much like guys pickin on girls in the first place, but the least ya could do is have the courage not ta hide behind a crowd." He growled. Kneeling down in front of the girl, he looked her over. "You okay, Hotaru, right?"

The girl nodded. "Yes, I'm fine." She said, shortly, but Ranma noticed that her lunch bento, a rather well made one by the looks of the ribbon and cloth, had been knocked down onto the floor and scattered around.

"You guys, clean that up." He ordered, glaring at the boy who had been instigating this whole mess. "I'm gunna go get her some lunch."

The boy nodded sullenly, and started to pick up the Bento as Ranma lead Hotaru out of the room.

As the two walked down the hall, the young girl looked up at the boy oddly. She hadn't really considered not going with him, as he looked a lot like Ranko, had identified himself as her brother, and she quite frankly would have given anything to be pulled out of that situation. Still, she had to ask. "You're Ranma, right? Ranko's brother that she told me about."

Ranma nodded, not really wanting to lie to the girl, but not feeling like explaining his curse at the moment.

As they turned out of the hall and into the main section of the building, she asked something else. "What you said, about if he'd attacked me by himself, Ranko said it too… what did you mean?"

Ranma shrugged, uncomfortably. "Ranko 'n me're both martial artists." He explained. "Unless there's a really good reason, we don't like getting in fights between two people or two groups, 'cuz we could be interrupting an honorable match."

"And what kind of reasons are good ones to interfere?" She asked, being rather confused. She hadn't heard of martial artists much other than in action movies, and she really didn't like those.

"If one's obviously better than the other 'n he's beating them up just for the fun 'o it. That sorta stuff. Martial artists have ta protect the weak." Ranma shrugged, before coming to a stop at a food stand that was set up near the middle of the floor. "Anything special you want?"

Hotaru shook her head, so Ranma began to order two pretty standard lunches, while several thoughts ran through her head. 'To protect the weak?' She thought. It was a very nice idea… if only she wasn't so weak herself. She frowned, once more wishing that she could become healthy, like her idol Hayase-San, or Ranma and Ranko.

Ranma interrupted the girl's thoughts when he tapped her on the shoulder, and she jumped back slightly at the sight of a plate of food held in his hand. "Did I startle you, Hotaru-chan?" He asked, trying to be comforting.

"No, I'm… I'm fine." Hotaru stammered, reaching out and taking the plate of food. "Thank you, Ranma-San."

He shrugged. "No prob, and just call me Ranma, okay?

Hotaru nodded back shyly, and was about to say something when a voice could be heard from down the hall. "Ranma, there you are!" It exclaimed, happily.

Ranma looked up, seeing that it was Kasumi walking towards him quickly with a happy smile on her face. "Hey, Kasumi." He greeted, waving. "Sorry Hotaru, but I've gotta get some stuff done. You gunna be okay?"

The dark haired little girl nodded, holding her plate away from herself and bowing slightly in thanks. "I'll be fine, thank you… Ranma." She said, before running off.

He blinked in confusion, and wondered what that was about, but shrugged it off as Kasumi reached him. "Haruka said you wanted ta talk ta me?" He asked.

"Yes, well, I just wanted to tell you how my date with Tofu-Sensei went!" Kasumi exclaimed. Ranma was about to object, when she latched onto his arm and started guiding him along. Kasumi being Kasumi, he couldn't very well resist.

HR.

Later that afternoon, after Ranma had been thoroughly briefed by Kasumi on how her date went, he had to wonder if she forgot he was a guy. She'd been talking the way she would to one of her sisters, about how handsome Tofu was once he'd stopped goofing around and everything, but he couldn't say he really minded. It was just nice to see Kasumi so happy, and he supposed he could endure some girl talk in the pursuit of that goal.

He, himself, was just glad that the day was over at last. This school wasn't at all like Furinkan, and he'd found it actually a little tiring to keep up with the teachers. The English teacher was the worst, since a solid six months with Hinako-Sensei had shot his facility with that language DOWN from where it originally was, but even the others were a pain in the butt, especially the advanced math class that he had to take Juku courses for.

Shrugging this off, he started out of the school, noticing Haruka waiting by the front entrance. "Took you a while." She observed, straightening out from the brick pillar she'd been casually leaning against.

Ranma looked a little sheepish. "Had some extra stuff ta catch up on, sorry I forgot ta tell ya."

"it's fine." She said, and the two began heading home, discussing what had happened during the day.

As they were half way there, however, a break in their routine developed. The small cell phones in both of their pockets began to beep shrilly. Haruka responded first, more used to using the devices than Ranma, and picked hers up. "Hello?" She asked.

"There's an attack going on right now." Came Pluto's clipped voice on the other end of the line. Haruka paled as the green haired Senshi relayed the street address.

"Yeah, Ranma's with me." Haruka finally said, in response to the time Senshi's final question. "We're on our way."

"What's up?" Ranma asked, as Haruka sharply closed the phone and slipped it into her pocket.

"One of those heart crystal monsters is attacking." The Blonde answered. "I've got the address, and Pluto says we'd better get there fast."

"Gotcha." Ranma said, grabbing Haruka in his arms and leaping as high and as fast as he could.

"Gah!" She yelped, glaring at him in annoyance.

"Just point the way!" He called, and she reluctantly did, allowing him to start roof hopping as quickly as he could towards the attack.

HR.

Neptune and Uranus landed in front of a large, beaten up looking abandoned house, having made the trip there within about a minute. They had transformed on the roof next door, and were battle ready. "We ready for this?" Uranus asked, a slight tinge of nervousness evident in her voice.

Neptune slowly nodded. "I think so." She responded, as the two leapt over the old place's outer wall. Unfortunately, Neptune's statement was proven false, at least on one level, the second the two cleared the jump. Uranus was forced to catch her partner as Neptune went completely rigid, and her eyes widened substantially.

"What's wrong?" The wind Senshi asked, concerned.

The Senshi of the ocean only said one word. "C… Cats." And so, it was. In front of the two was a yard that was sparsely dotted with felines of all shapes and sizes, most of which were either running towards the main house or sitting and yowling at it.

Neptune was shaken from her horrified examination of the scene, and Uranus from her confused one, however, when a loud explosion echoed from the house.

"We have to go in." The blonde Senshi said, unsure of precisely what had gotten her partner so upset.

Neptune took in a long, slow breath, before nodding slowly. "Y, yeah. Let's go." She stammered, and the two leapt clear over most of the cats, landing outside of a large skylight over the front hall of the place.

HR.

"Burning Mandala!" "Sparkling Wide Pressure!" Usagi watched as two of the other Senshi launched their attacks at the monster, only to be blasted back themselves. "No…" She mumbled, shocked. This battle was starting to look a lot like the one that had happened only two days before at the Hikawa Shrine, though she couldn't be sure of either Tuxedo Mask, who only seemed to come when she was in real danger, or those mysterious new Senshi showing up.

Next to her, Luna and Artemis looked on, concerned, afraid that the lunar Senshi, who was far too compassionate for her own good sometimes, would do something foolish. Unfortunately, they were right as Usagi charged out of the crack in the mansion's wall she'd been hiding in, yelling. "No! You can't!" She called, but the cat-girl shaped enemy barely even noticed her as it flicked its tail out to knock her into a wall.

"And another one goes down." It sneered, and then turned back to what the Senshi had so rudely interrupted. The black star on its upper leg began to glow with dark energy, and the brown haired girl who took care of all of the cats in the mansion, the pure hearted target of this attack, cried out once again.

The cat thing chuckled, stepping forward in order to catch the heart crystal as it flew from the girl's chest. "I think Dr. Tomoe and Kaolinite will be quite pleased!" She cackled turning to walk away.

It was at that moment that a ball of yellow energy smashed into the cat thing, sending it smashing against the far wall of the room in a temporarily unconscious heap.

Usagi and the just recovering Senshi looked up, to see that two shadows were silhouetted against the light from a broken skylight in the upper part of the room. "They're…" Usagi gasped, surprised.

One of the girls seemed to look at the other for a moment, resting a hand on the other's shoulder, before she talked in a tone too low for the other girls to hear and leapt down to the ground. She scooped up the crystal that the demon had dropped when it had been slammed into the wall, and leapt back up to where her partner was.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Sailor Mars demanded, glaring at the blonde, and then the redhead who began to examine the crystal.

"That's… not it, I'm pretty sure." The redhead said, now loudly enough for the others to hear, and with a clear note of strain in her voice. The blonde seemed to sigh in relief, jumping down again in preparation to return the crystal. This was, unfortunately, when the monster had managed to pull itself together and nail the blonde girl with her tail.

Sailor Uranus cried in pain as she was knocked hard in the back by the long weapon, slamming face first into a wall.

Up in the rafters Neptune watched, barely able to move and hating herself for it. She had tried to cast the deep submerge in order to hit the thing in combination with Uranus's world shaking, but the seemingly effortless ability simply wouldn't complete. She flinched every time she heard a cat meow or saw one move, and there were cats all over this place, both inside and out.

Uranus didn't know what was going on, but had been willing to dive into the middle of the battle to get the heart crystal, and right now Neptune wanted to crawl into a ball, or commit Seppuku, because her own fear was just barely in check enough to keep her from running for her life.

Neptune's mental tirade against her own fear in order to make her do SOMETHING was interrupted, as the demon reared back to strike Uranus. She began to move forward, starting to jump down, when another blonde girl threw herself in front of the Senshi of wind to protect her.

Usagi was slammed back into Uranus's body, the Senshi taking much less of the force of the attack than was normal, and suddenly a black clad shape appeared to sweep the odango haired girl up in its arms.

When it stopped, it was revealed to be the form of a man wearing a Tuxedo, with a cape over his shoulders, holding the blonde haired civilian girl in his arms. The demon didn't seem to mind, lashing out at him with her tail in order to get rid of the annoyances… just as Neptune's strike landed, the momentum assisted jump kick landing straight into the middle of the thing's head.

This had the desired effect of stopping the attack, as the monster fell flat on its face, and Neptune jumped off of it to land in front of Usagi and the cape wearing guy.

"Tuxedo Mask." Usagi gasped, barely conscious from the two massive blows she'd taken while not in Senshi uniform. "You… saved me."

The black clad man nodded, setting Usagi down and withdrawing his cane from behind his back. "It's not over yet." He growled, taking up a stance. Neptune stood next to him, though her stance was very shaky itself and he could see that the girl's eyes were ranging around the room for escape routes. "Are you all right?" He asked, worried.

Neptune didn't respond, but the inner Senshi joined the two, as well as Uranus.

Behind them, Usagi was feeling odd. This thing had defeated her friends before, and Tuxedo mask hadn't really been a true match for anything past the Cardians. Also, at least one of the new Senshi looked petrified for some reason, but they were all standing tall in front of her. "Why are you doing this?" She asked, surprised.

Mars snorted. "Hey, idiot. We're your friends, and this is our job, remember?" She said, throwing a look back.

The other inner Senshi and Mamoru nodded, before charging.

One Daimon, especially one this week, normally wouldn't stand a chance against six united Senshi and Tuxedo mask, but this one was a special case. Due to the nature of its body, it could reform whenever blasted apart, and its tail was a formidable weapon. Add to that the fact that time was running out for the poor cat feeding girl without her heart crystal, and Neptune was down to only a portion of her fighting effectiveness, they were having a very tough time of it.

HR.

"Damn it, why won't you die?!" Jupiter demanded, after letting off yet another supreme thunder into the thing's back. It slammed into a wall, and Mars swiped the heart crystal, dashing towards the carrier. Unfortunately, the thing recovered before Mars could make it, and lashed its tail out to catch her. Instead of the maiden of fire, though, Tuxedo mask interposed his body between the tail and its destination, getting slammed headlong into the ground.

His covering action had made a difference, however, as Mars had managed to get to the victim and re-insert her heart crystal, then shove her out of the room.

"Tuxedo Mask!" Usagi cried, running out into the middle of the room to check on the man she loved, incidentally making the battle a lot harder for the Senshi as they had to be sure and avoid aiming attacks at her. Sliding to the ground on her knees, she reached out to touch the tuxedoed defender's cheek. "Are you all right?" She asked.

He groaned, wincing as he felt at least one broken rib, but smiled. "I'll be fine." He gasped out. "Get out of the way, before…" He winced, as Jupiter took one of the cat thing's tail attacks to the arms in order to save Usagi from the impact.

The odangoed girl's eyes filled with tears, and she let one fall onto Tuxedo mask's face as she looked to see if he was okay. "Why… why can't I help them?" She asked. "I want to help my friends… you shouldn't have gotten hurt… I…"

"It's okay, Usako." Tuxedo mask said, reaching up to wipe the tears from her eyes. "They can beat it…"

"No!" She said, as light began to glimmer from the broken transformation broach that she wore, as well as the point where her beloved's hand touched her face. "This.. shouldn't have happened!"

In seconds, the red and pink glow had exploded out from her, and a staff seemed to form out of it, its top decorated with a giant heart. During this time, the Daimon and the Senshi had stopped fighting each other briefly in order to see what had caused the light, as Usagi raised her new broach and called out the words she somehow knew how to say. "Moon Cosmic Power, Make up!"

Abruptly, in a flash of light, Sailor moon was back in action, with a new weapon to help fight the enemy. The Daimon instantly identified the new threat, but as it charged, she performed the moon spiral heart attack and vaporized it.

The room fell into a dead silence for a moment, until Neptune broke it. "It's over, right?" She asked, slowly.

Uranus nodded. "I… think so." She said, very confused.

"Good." Neptune answered, the adrenaline that had allowed her to fight past her fear suddenly deserting her, as she found herself once again in a room chock full of cats. Under the circumstances, the fact that She once more began shaking like a leaf could be forgiven.

Uranus walked up next to her, and looked at her in concern. "What the hell is going on here?" She demanded, giving the redhead a glare.

"I'm… afraid of cats." Neptune admitted, trying to look anywhere but at Uranus or the felines around her, and choosing a nice bit of ceiling instead.

"You're afraid of cats?" Uranus demanded, stunned, as one of the inner Senshi, a blue haired one with n odd blue screen in front of her eyes approached.

"Hmm, ailurophobia would explain her reactions, though it would be more severe than I've ever heard of." She chipped in.

Uranus threw an odd look at the other girl, before turning back to Neptune. "And you didn't tell me about this important fact because?" She asked. Seeing that the other wasn't in much of a condition to respond, she sighed. "Forget it, we should get out of here."

The two started for the door, but two voices interrupted them on their way. "Sailor Uranus, Neptune, please wait!" The named Senshi turned, and Neptune became still as a statue, as two cats charged towards them as quickly as they could. This state didn't last long, however, as she then snapped out her hands, and in a fear induced miracle that she wouldn't be able to reproduce again for several months, projected a beam of solid water into the 'attacking' 'monsters,' sending them slamming into the far wall. Then, she passed out in shock.

Uranus raced forward, catching her partner in her arms, and glanced around. Deciding that she should get Ranma out of here before anything else happened, she jumped up to the broken window the two outer Senshi had entered by, exiting into the afternoon sun and making her way towards Setsuna's place as quickly as she could. She just hoped that Neptune would wake up in time to change back into Ranma before they got there.

END.

Well, there's the next chapter! Now the outers definately know at least about Usagi's transformation, and poor Luna and Artemis... that had to hurt.

Anyhow, sorry about the use of some of the cloverway dub's lines in the scenes that start out from the episodes. While the major plot is usually from the Japanese version, I'm using summaries and fan translated scripts for that, so the actual dialogue is slightly too awkward.

Anyhow, like I always say, I hope you liked it and please don't forget to drop a review!


	39. Chapter 39, Very Tragic Story

Yeah, I like it when my muse isn't suffering from a bad hangover.

Anyhow, here's the next chapter. Hope all of you like it!

Chapter 39, Very Tragic Story.

"That was… stupid." This was the first thought to enter Luna's head as she regained consciousness. This was in reference to the last thing she remembered. She'd charged after one of the newly found outer Senshi as the two were leaving, only wanting to catch them and talk to them before they got away, and not considering if they were friends or foes. About the only saving grace of the decision was that Artemis had followed her in the charge, but she never really thought he was the sharpest tool in the shed. Now, she supposed, she new the answer to the question of if the outers were hostile or not.

Neptune's blast of high pressure water that had picked her and her feline colleague up and thrown them across the room had answered the question quite effectively. Rolling over to put her paws under her again, the black cat tried to pull herself to all fours, only to fall forward and bash her nose off of the floor. It was odd, that had felt more painful than she'd remembered. Reaching a paw up to wipe the abused sensory organ, she stopped in shock when she felt five fingers against a human face. Opening her eyes, she looked forward to see a soft pink hand hovering in front of her eyes. That, of course, was when she screamed.

HR.

Sailor Moon winced as she picked her way through the rubble that had once been a rather neat abandoned house, at least before the Senshi had gotten through with it. When Neptune had blasted Luna and Artemis, she had seen them flying over this way, and now was hunting through a rather large area of rubbled wall and floor pieces to find them. As she moved past one particularly large bit of debris, the Senshi of the moon stopped in shock. On the floor in front of her was a nude black haired woman on all fours, as well as a white haired man in a similar state laying next to her, knocked out.

The blonde girl was about to say something, when the black haired woman raised one hand to her face, felt around for a second and started screaming. Instantly, her worry increased, and she ran over to the hysterical woman. "Are you all right, miss?" She asked, worriedly.

"U… Usagi?" The woman asked, in a voice that the rabbit girl could identify as the usually much calmer tones of her advisor.

"Luna?" The girl asked, her mouth dropping wide. "Mercury! Get over here fast!"

On the other side of the massive main hall, the Senshi of Mercury looked up from examining Tuxedo mask's injured side at the call of her leader. She'd already confirmed that the man only had one broken rib, which his magic seemed to already be starting to repair, so she nodded. "Don't move for a few minutes, all right?" She asked, quickly standing and moving towards her leader's call.

The Tuxedoed man nodded, perfectly content to lay there for the moment, as Sailor Moon's voice didn't sound afraid, just confused, and he was in quite a great deal of pain. He frowned to himself as he stared up at the roof. "Well, this has been fun." He muttered, sourly, looking to his side to see Jupiter tending to several burns on Mars's arm. It seemed that the enemies had suddenly gotten a lot stronger over the last two attacks, and the Senshi were paying the price.

HR.

Nodoka got up from a seat in the living room as she heard the sound of someone knocking on the door. The knocks sounded loud and rather slow, so she wondered who it was, hurrying into the front entryway. Opening the door, she blinked as she saw Haruka carrying an unconscious female Ranma in her arms. "Oh!" She exclaimed, one hand rising to her mouth. "Is she all right?"

Haruka didn't answer, thankful that she'd figured out how to get Ranma to transform back from Neptune even if the girl wouldn't wake up, and stepped into the hall. Seeing Nodoka follow her worriedly, she brought the little redhead into the front room and laid her down on a couch.

"What happened?" Ranma's mother asked, this time sounding much more worried.

"I'm not really sure." Haruka confessed. "She said something about being afraid of cats, and then started freaking out." She altered her story slightly, namely by avoiding the Senshi, but was surprised when Nodoka went pale.

"Cats?" The older woman asked, sharply.

"Yeah." Haruka responded. "There were a lot of them, they sort of jumped out and surprised us. Why, do you know what's going on?"

Nodoka frowned darkly. "I didn't know until recently, but yes I do." She said, and seeing that Haruka was waiting on an explanation, continued. "I suppose Ranma should tell you this, but he… erm, she obviously hasn't. During Ranma's training trip, some time in his youth, his father tried to train him in a martial arts technique called the Neko-ken."

"Cat fist?" Haruka asked, not entirely sure that she liked where this was going.

Nodoka nodded. "Yes. It's a technique where you dig a pit, fill it with cats who have been starved for a minimum of three days, and then throw your student in covered in fish products." She recited the statement as if she were reading it off of a page, her voice emotionless, even though Haruka could see that the woman had tears in her eyes. "I don't know how many times Genma did this, or when it was done, but it apparently leaves the student with an intense fear of cats that drives them insane."

Haruka was looking distinctly green by this point, and was also very thankful that she didn't have Ranma's father. "Wish he'd have told me." She muttered, though her look towards the sleeping redhead was more regretful than anything else.

Walking over, she placed a hand on Ranma's arm, squeezing once. Oddly, the response to this was immediate as the redhead shot up, looking around the room rapidly. "Wha?" She asked. "Are… they gone? Did we beat that… thing?"

"The cats are gone." Haruka comforted, wincing at Ranma's mentioning of the monster but hoping that Nodoka wouldn't notice. As she said this, Ranma's eyes tracked around to her, and the redhead grabbed onto her, holding her tightly around the shoulders, and started shivering.

Nodoka sighed, and walked out of the room to leave the two of them alone.

As she did so, Haruka rubbed Ranma's back, trying to calm the smaller girl down. Fortunately , it began to work shortly, and Ranma eventually pulled away. "Sorry 'bout that." The redhead muttered, looking away ashamed. "The cat thing just…" She shook her head in disgust.

"You could have told me about it before, you know." Haruka replied, not able to keep a little bit of accusation out of her voice.

Ranma sighed and looked down at her hands as she fumbled with them. "I try not ta think about the cat thing myself." She explained. "It's… not exactly one of my best memories, y'know?"

Haruka nodded. "Yeah, but if I'd have known about the Neko-ken, I would have made you stay outside of that damned place." She growled.

Ranma smirked back at her, though it was shaky. "Ya think I woulda let you?" She countered.

"You don't have to charge at everything head on, you know." Haruka offered, and then said something else more softly. "I'm here to help you out with it now."

"Yeah… I know." Ranma said, looking up into the blonde's eyes again. "I'm sorry I didn't tell ya about it, it really is hard to talk about." She smirked a little mockingly. "Some big strong martial artist I am, eh?"

Haruka frowned. "I'm going to beat your father over the head with a tire iron." She said, seriously. "Everyone's got limits; you just have to admit they're there and let someone else help you out with them, all right?"

Ranma nodded reluctantly, and Haruka reached out to hug her with one arm. The two spent the next little while just sitting like that, enjoying each other's company.

HR.

Setsuna studied the gates of time, actually surprised that she wasn't surprised. When she'd seen things starting to go very oddly at the last Daimon battle, including Ranma's fear of cats which she'd forgotten to factor in, she had contemplated teleporting in to interfere, but everything had managed to resolve itself somewhere near satisfactorily, with the exception of the last little bit.

She knew that, in this time, the Senshi would likely never master casting their abilities without a chant. Hell, even she found the process so annoyingly difficult that she usually whispered a focusing mantra before firing. Still, Neptune had managed it when she'd blasted Luna and Artemis, and the results of the attack had been… interesting.

Still, she didn't want to interfere again, especially in the inner Senshi's lives, unless necessary, so she decided to let things play out for now.

She would however have to see about perhaps getting some counseling for Ranma about his fear of cats, though she doubted that he would take it. Teleporting out of the time gates, the Senshi of time transformed to civilian form, heading home to see her house guests and make sure that one of them hadn't gone completely insane.

HR.

"Well, besides several bruises on your backs and heads that should heal up shortly, both of you appear to be in good health." Ami said, studying the two figures who sat across from her in the forest behind the Hikawa Shrine with her Mercury Computer.

One of them, a black haired female wearing one of Rei's spare Miko outfits , just sat there in a state of shock, but the other, a white haired man wearing only a set of dingy jeans snorted. "Other than the fact that we're the wrong species, you mean." He grumbled.

The blue haired Senshi sighed. "Other than that, yes." She conceded.

"Aw, come on Artemis, at least you're cute!" Minako contributed, from where she was leaning against a tree nearby.

The white haired man just sniffed, irritated, and gave his ward an annoyed glare. "Do you have any idea how this happened?" He asked, turning back to Ami.

The water Senshi frowned. "Well, I've got some theories, but the only one that makes any sense at all would have needed to have left a much larger magical signature on you two than it did."

"What is it?" Usagi asked, from where she sat next to Luna.

"Well, given that they were hit by water and a few things I suspect about the Senshi of Neptune, it may be Jusenkyo." Seeing the others looking at her blankly, she explained. "It's a place somewhere in China that causes people to change forms when hit with various temperatures of water. Konatsu told me about it. The only problem is that it should have turned both of them into nearly the exact same thing, rather than just human versions of themselves."

"What, isn't turning them both human making them the exact same thing?" Rei asked, curiously.

Mercury shrugged. "Well, the only cursed person I know about fell into the spring of the drowned girl."

Suddenly, Artemis realized that he'd gotten off lucky. "Fine, so if it's this Jusenkyo, then is there any way to change us back?" He asked.

Mercury nodded. "If it is, then yes." She said. "You should be able to change back using warm water."

"I'll go get some to test!" Makoto offered, before running back towards the shrine.

"All right, so if they were hit with this Jusenkyo stuff, why would Neptune blast them with it? I mean, it is a little weird for someone to just up and attack two random cats, isn't it?" Minako offered.

"Yeah." Usagi agreed. "That wasn't exactly friendly behavior, but they did help us fight that thing off." She said, confused.

"Well, I may have an explanation for that, too, but I'm not sure. Before Neptune attacked Luna and Artemis, she mentioned something to Uranus about being Ailurophobic."

"Alurea… what?" Minako asked, blinking in confusion.

"Oh, I know that one! It means she's afraid of cats!" Seeing that Ami, Minako, and both transformed cats were staring at her in disbelief, Usagi frowned. "Hey, I know some stuff, you know! Shingo had the same problem until he met Luna and got to know her."

"So, you think Neptune attacked Luna and Artemis because she was afraid of them?" Makoto asked, as she stepped into the clearing where the others were gathered, outside of the shrine for once because they weren't sure how Rei's grandfather would react to them bringing Luna and Artemis inside.

Ami nodded as the other Senshi passed her a kettle full of boiling water. "Sorry, but I didn't know how hot it had to be." The Senshi of thunder exclaimed.

"I don't know, either." Ami replied. "This is probably going to burn, who wants to go first?"

"I will." Luna said, speaking for the first time since she had discovered that she'd suddenly been transformed into a human at Random. Ami nodded, holding the kettle above the black haired woman's head and dumping a small amount of the water over it. The response was almost instant, as the Miko's clothes that Luna had borrowed fell down about her restored feline form, but she yowled in pain.

"Ouch, that was hot!" She complained, though she seemed much more comfortable now that she was a cat again, shaking out her now steaming fur. Artemis took his place in front of the kettle, and soon found himself feline again as well.

"So, that was interesting." He mumbled, looking oddly at the Senshi.

Ami frowned. "Unfortunately, since that IS apparently Jusenkyo, there's a problem." She said. The two moon cats blinked, looking at her oddly and waiting for her to continue, so she sighed. "The curse isn't just a change back and forth. It stays in effect, so that next time you get hit with cold water, you change back."

"That's a joke, right?" Usagi asked, worried.

Ami slowly shook her head, and the two cats face-faulted.

HR.

Later that night, Makoto found herself sitting in her small apartment home with two rather disgruntled moon cats slumped on the ground in front of her. Unfortunately, through testing, the Senshi had found out that the cats DID, in fact, respond to cold water the way Ami had said they would, and they had all decided that Usagi's or Minako's parents wouldn't react well if, somehow, Luna and Artemis had ended up getting splashed and turning into naked humans in their living rooms.

As a result, she had been elected to take care of the two cats, since she lived alone, until things could be sorted out. They weren't precisely pleased about being separated from the people they protected, but they had to admit the logic in the plan.

"Hey guys, don't worry. Ami and I are going to see Neptune tomorrow, and Ami says that she knows its Neptune now, for some reason. We'll get this all sorted out." The cats didn't respond, so she tried a different tack. "Plus, I've got some pretty good fresh fish in the kitchen." Seeing that Artemis had at least perked up, and Luna had as well, though was trying to hide it rather well, she smiled slightly. She could take care of the cats for a while, and hopefully the meeting with Neptune the next day would go well and the Jusenkyo curses or whatever could be taken off of them.

HR.

In Setsuna's place, Ranma sneezed violently as he was going through a Kata with Haruka, just barely keeping himself from falling flat on his face. "Are you all right?" The blonde asked, reaching out to steady him.

"Yeah." He replied, shaking his head. "Guess someone's thinkin about me." He laughed.

HR.

"Miss Tendo, time to wake up!" Akane groaned, rolling onto her side and putting a pillow over her head. She really didn't want to move, and not only for the reason that every muscle in her body was crying out that it was still strained and needed rest. "Come on Miss Tendo, you know what happens when you don't get up!" The voice said again, a slight sadistic tone audible in it as the sound of metal against metal reached her ears.

She did, in fact, know what happened, and she cracked open her eyes and rolled over to glare with narrowed eyes at elder Cologne. "Wha…?" She asked, performing a remarkable imitation of Ranma.

"It's your last day of training, and we have to stop before noon so you're ready for the fight tomorrow, which means you'd better get up or I'm throwing this at you!" Cologne pronounced, holding up a large cast iron bucket. Akane nodded, reaching up to rub the sleep out of her eyes and muttering something. "What was that?" Cologne asked, quickly.

"I was just wondering if you were getting me back for all the times I woke up Ranma with a bucket of water." She mumbled, yawning half way through the statement.

"You could look at it that way." The elder cackled, before exiting into the restaurant. "But if you aren't out here in five minutes, you don't get breakfast!"

"Slave driver." The girl grumbled, hauling herself out of her futon and starting to get dressed. Over the past week, she had started to realize precisely how bad Ranma had it during his training trips. Still, she'd made truly remarkable progress in her speed and coordination over the duration, and though she wasn't confident about beating her father, she had some hope.

After slipping on the blue and yellow Chinese dress that Cologne demanded she wear while working at the peeking duck, the youngest Tendo proceeded out of the room and into the kitchen.

In there, she saw Cologne perching on the counter while Mousse bustled around making things ready for the morning, and scooped up the bowl next to the old woman. "Girl, while you eat I want to talk to you." The elder said, following Akane as she made her way out to one of the already cleared seats.

"What about?" The Tendo girl asked, holding off in starting to chow down for a moment, even if her appetite had been growing due to all of the training she had been doing recently.

"I just want to make it clear to you that the fight you are in tomorrow is very important for both you and your school." The elder said, causing Akane to grimace.

"Yes, I know." The blue-black haired girl said, and thought, 'as if I wasn't under enough pressure already…'

"Just remember one thing, and this is perhaps the most valuable piece of advice that I can give you during this week. Your style is called anything goes for a reason, remember that."

Akane wanted to ask Cologne what she meant by that, but was cut off as the woman quickly used her staff to navigate her way into the kitchen. Shrugging, she filed the comment away to think about later, and kept eating her breakfast.

HR.

Ami sat uneasily in her chair, waiting for Ranma to show up. She was going to confront him about both Jusenkyo and the Senshi after this Juku session, and was understandably nervous about it even if Makoto would be backing her up.

She saw the pigtailed boy enter the room, but he only smiled slightly at her and slumped lazily in his seat next to her. "Hey, Mizuno-san." He said, casually, leaning back to fall into the half catatonic state that she'd seen him in occasionally before. She had gently tried to wake him the first time, but as he'd been able to remember what the teacher had said she'd given up when he started doing it again.

Opening her book for the current week's questions, which she'd studied thoroughly the night before, she waited for the teacher to start talking.

He walked up to the front of the room, a middle aged man with dark brown hair, and smiled before beginning the class. For once, she fidgeted while the teacher talked, and Ranma seemed to notice as he threw her an odd glance every once in a while.

"You okay?" The pigtailed boy finally asked, leaning over to whisper it into her ear.

Ami almost jumped a full foot into the air, but suppressed the reaction. "Yes, but can I speak to you after class?" She asked.

A worried look flashed across Ranma's face, followed by one of slight nervousness, but he eventually reluctantly answered, "Sure."

Ami sighed in relief. That was at least one hurdle out of the way. Now, all she had to do was wait through the rest of the class without going nuts. Trying to lose herself in the lesson, she began to read her notes once again and preyed for class to be over quickly.

HR.

Ami was jolted out of a half conscious haze after what seemed like hours by the teacher in front of the Juku class closing his book with a snap. Looking around, she saw that most of the other students were getting up to leave, and she hadn't written any notes down since half way through the class.

"Look, Mizuno-san, you feelin okay?" Ranma asked again, actually looking concerned. "Ya seemed a little bit jumpy today."

"I'm fine." Ami said. "Can we go out and talk in the park across from the library? I need to speak to you in private."

Ranma suddenly frowned nervously, but nodded, and grabbed some of Ami's usual huge pile of text books. "I'll carry these for ya, okay?"

She nodded, and the two proceeded out of the library. She caught a quick glance of Makoto's arm waving at her before it retracted into some bushes as she exited the main door, and sighed in relief, though Ranma appeared to be getting more nervous.

As the two proceeded across the street and Ami guided them to a bench that was hidden away deep in the park, he finally couldn't hold it. "You ain't one of the girls Genma gypped comin to find me, are ya?" He finally blurted.

Ami just blinked at him for a moment. "Excuse me?" She asked.

"You don't know Genma Saotome, do ya?" He clarified. Seeing her rather baffled shake of the head, he started running down a list. "You're not engaged to me, trying to kill me, got a sister or other relative who's either 'o those?" At each of Ami's baffled shakes of the head, he seemed to get more relaxed. "Okay, then what's up?"

"Well, I'd first like to know why you'd ask a bunch of questions like that." The Senshi of Mercury said, honestly confused.

Ranma shrugged. "Long story," Was all he said, and she supposed that she would have to settle for that for the time being.

"Well then," She said, and then started trying to pick words to ask her next few questions. Honestly, she hadn't given much thought to what she would actually SAY to Ranma to confront him about being a Senshi without revealing too much about herself to a possible civilian. Making a decision, she spoke. "You know about Jusenkyo, right?"

"How do ya know about that place?" he growled.

"A friend of mine told me about it." She explained. "He also told me about your curse."

Ranma grimaced and started to growl out a name that started with an N, but stopped himself, "He, you said?" He asked.

"Yes, he's a friend of yours. His name's Konatsu and he lived at my friend Rei's shrine for a few days." Ami explained, feeling bad for ratting out Konatsu.

To her surprise, Ranma just let out a resigned sigh. "Figures Konatsu'd tell you, he'll do anythin for anyone who'll do something nice for him. Yeah, I've got a Jusenkyo curse, spring of drowned girl." He looked annoyed. "Is that all ya want?"

"No." Ami said. Having gotten at least a bit of conformation, she decided to bite the bullet. "I know that you're sailor Neptune." She said, flatly.

"What?" Ranma asked, trying to laugh, but sounding more nervous. "I ain't sailor anythin." He objected. Internally, Ami marveled at precisely how bad a liar the boy was.

"Do you know that yesterday, when you hit two cats with water, you somehow gave them Jusenkyo curses?" She continued pushing.

Ranma flinched violently, then suddenly started to look around. "Just a minute." He snapped, then got up and started to walk towards the bushes that surrounded the bench. Ami thought he was trying to run, so she followed him, but he simply reached one hand into the bushes, grabbing something and pulling.

"Youch!" Makoto yelped, as Ranma pulled her bodily out of the bush and over his head, landing her with a decent amount of force on her back.

Ami gaped. She hadn't been able to see Makoto after her original signal, especially since the brown haired girl blended with the bushes rather well, but Ranma had found her with ease. "Who's this?" He asked, looking down at the girl levelly.

"The name's Makoto Kino." The girl said, and groaned. "That… really hurt."

"Friend of yours?" The rather annoyed pigtailed boy asked, looking at Ami with a raised eyebrow. The blue haired girl nodded, sighing and moving a hand to her forehead, and the boy continued. "Okay, I'm not really very good at subtlety, 'n you two obviously wanna tell me something, so why not spit it out?"

Ami thought for a moment, then nodded. So far, this meeting had gone exactly the wrong way, so she decided to cut her losses. "The Sailor Senshi want to meet with you and Sailor Uranus." She said, calmly.

"And they sent you because…" Ranma asked, not even trying to deny who he was at the moment, and waiting for an honest answer.

Ami looked to Makoto, and Makoto looked back to Ami. "We can't tell you that right now, but you'll probably find out if you meet the Senshi." Ami said. "Will you do it?"

"Where and when?" Ranma asked.

"The Hikawa Shrine, this Sunday." Ami replied, instantly.

"I've gotta ask Uranus about it." He conceded. "'N if you guys tell anyone 'bout this, I know people who can make sure ya never tell anyone else without even hurtin ya."

Ami gulped nervously, but nodded. Given that she'd just revealed that she knew at least two of his most guarded secrets, she could forgive the issuing of a few empty threats. Of course, she didn't know about Cologne, but that was beside the point. "I hope to see you on Sunday." She said, before she and Makoto walked off.

Ranma considered following them, but decided to let them alone for now. He knew Ami's full name, at least, so if he needed to track her down later it wouldn't be hard. "This has been one hell of a month." He muttered, before turning to head home.

END.

And now for something completely different.

OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE!

Ami opened her book to the page containing the current week's questions, which she'd studied thoroughly the night before, and waited for the teacher to start talking.

He walked up to the front of the room, a much older man with grey hair and glasses, and cleared his throat. "Now, we shall begin the lesson." He said, confidently.

"I remember the second impact well. It was a disaster that affected a great portion of the world's population, and…"

Ami blinked in confusion for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on, and then snapped her fingers. Raising her hand, she waited for the teacher to notice.

"Yes, Miss Mizuno?" He asked, looking slightly miffed.

"Um, sir… Why are you quoting from Evangelion?" Ami contributed.

The teacher scowled at her. "Mr. Aida, how many times have I told you that this class is NOT about Evangelions?"

'I'm not that much of a geek, am I?' Ami thought, about to take offense at being compared to Kensuke when the door to the room slammed open, and a woman who looked strikingly similar to her, though in some sort of blue and black uniform with an arrow-head shaped badge above one breast, walked in.

The teacher looked up, surprised, before the second Ami grabbed him by the shoulder and began to march him out of the room. Turning at the door, she smiled tightly back in. "Sorry about that, he gets a little confused. He's been doing this far too long." She explained, in a duplicate of Ami's voice, turning back and leaving completely.

As she was walking down the hall, the Senshi of ice could hear her muttering something about Misato, someone named Weebee, and never getting production finished on time.

"You know," She said, turning towards Ranma. "I think you could be right about me studying too hard…" as she laid her head on the table to join him in a much more real version of his feigned catatonic state. Just before she lost consciousness completely, though, she had to admit that the other her had better luck with uniforms than she did.

END OMAKE.

Weebee:And all of you thought we could keep this thing going with only one take? Hope you enjoyed the show, and don't forget to review!

Misato: Would you get back to work? Mizuno's still giving me dirty looks over that one.


	40. Chapter 40, The one to Carry On, Part 3

Well, antoher chapter... Not much else to say, other than I'm tired, and I like reviews. Anyhow, shutting up now.

Chapter 40, The one to carry on, Part 3.

"So, that's what happened. Wadda ya think?" Sailor Neptune asked, standing across from Uranus in a vacant lot. The two had come here after Ranma and Haruka had both returned from school, and Ranma decided to see what both of their Senshi forms could do in a fight.

Uranus frowned. "I don't know… it seems a bit suspicious." She said, thinking. "I'd say we should go transformed, but they already know your civilian identity."

"Yeah, but it'd probably be good ta try 'n keep yours a secret, just in case it's a trap." Neptune smirked. "Besides, if there's a fight with anything other than demons, I'd rather be untransformed, so them knowin my identity isn't a bad thing. So… does that mean we're goin?"

"Well, even if it's a trap they can do enough with your civilian identity alone that it'd be better if we find out what they're doing." Uranus said, receiving a quick nod from Neptune, before the other blurred into motion. Cursing for letting her guard down during the talk, the blonde haired Senshi re-established it just as Neptune reached her, ducking out of the way of the red haired girl's high kick and returning with a punch to her side. "Ya coulda warned me, you know." She complained, annoyed.

Neptune shrugged. "This'll keep you sharper." She explained, before moving in again.

HR.

"So, that's what happened." Makoto Kino explained, as she and Ami finished their story of the meeting with the boy who was apparently Neptune. The fact that there was a male Senshi threw the brown haired girl through a loop, and she'd had a talk with Ami about why she hadn't revealed this little detail on their walk back to the shrine, but other than that, and the bruises she'd received from taking a flying leap into the ground, she thought the trip went well.

Usagi nodded, while the two moon cats sat next to her, looking annoyed that they would have to stay at Makoto's for another two days until the meeting, even if the food was good. "So, how do you think… he…. Took it?" The moon Senshi asked, looking at Ami questioningly.

"I'm not sure." The blue haired girl said, frowning slightly. "He didn't like it that I knew so many things about him. I don't think he trusted me very much, but I think at least he's going to be coming on Sunday. I'm not sure about Uranus, though."

"Well, it's better than I expected, considering the way they attacked us yesterday." Artemis said, sniffing in irritation.

Luna sighed. "Ami did explain that, you remember." She said. She hadn't liked being tossed across a room by a high pressure stream of water any more than the white cat did, and the results of that jet freaked her out to no end, but she supposed that if she'd seen a big dog charging at her and had the ability she would have probably done the same thing.

Artemis merely grumbled, and walked off to do something else.

"So, it's set up then." Minako chirped, happily. "We go to this meeting with the other Senshi on Sunday, they fix the moon cats and we talk a bit, and we've got it built!"

Usagi, Makoto and Ami nodded, but Rei stopped, thinking that perhaps she had forgotten something. Thinking for a moment, she couldn't remember what that was, but she felt that things may not go as well as they hoped.

HR.

Akane hoisted the small pack of belongings that she'd decided to take with her from the Peeking duck onto her shoulder, looking back at her room to make sure that she'd taken everything. "Are you ready, Tendo-san?" She spun, surprised, to see Mousse standing at the door and waiting for her.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm ready." She said, trying to get her heart rate back under control.

The blind boy nodded, and his hands slid into his sleaves for a moment. When they came back out, he was holding a small envelope. Akane looked at him oddly, so he explained. "These are your train tickets back to Nerima, and a small amount of money for your stay at a hotel for the night."

Akane blinked. "Thanks…" She said. "Did Nabiki send this stuff?"

Mousse shook his head. "No, I purchased the tickets and provided the money for you."

"You didn't have to do that." Akane said, but the master of hidden weapons just smiled and placed the envelope in her hands.

"Akane Tendo, I have enjoyed working with you while Cologne trained you over the past week." He shrugged. "Plus, consider this payment for the pig incident."

Akane smiled, remembering the second time she had met Mousse, and the blind boy had grabbed a stuffed pig she was holding, mistaking it for her. At the time she'd been mad, especially since he'd ended up destroying the pig, but now she found it funny. "Thank you." She finally said, seeing that Mousse was serious.

"It's no trouble." He answered, as she started to leave. Just as she had walked through the main room of the restaurant and was about to exit to the street, he spoke up again. "Akane Tendo?" She looked back to him, confused. "Good luck in your battle."

"Thanks!" She called back, letting the door swing closed behind her and starting to walk towards the Juuban metro station. Her mood was lifted by both Mousse's words, as well as Ranma's two days before, and it only took a slight dip when she was groped by a pervert on the train.

HR.

Nabiki Tendo held her pillow over her head, groaning as she felt the sun's rays beating against her eyelids. It was a Saturday morning, and she was going to sleep in, damn it, especially with how things had been going for the past week. The Tendo home had, without either Akane or Kasumi to try and keep it clean, degenerated into a disaster area with the exception of Nabiki's own room and the kitchen.

She would have cleaned the rest, but she was in the middle of studying for university entrance exams, as well as creating a business plan for if and when Akane defeated their father, and simply didn't have time. As the sun didn't have the decency to burn out and leave her alone, the middle Tendo daughter groaned and tossed her pillow across the room, her feet swinging over the edge of the bed and onto the floor.

Her sleep blurred eyes took in the room for a moment, before she yawned, grimaced, and began to long for her first morning coffee. Nabiki Tendo was NOT a morning person, and it was at times like this that she REALLY missed Kasumi, but she sighed and began to get ready for the day.

After a few minutes of tidying up her room, she quickly got washed up and tromped downstairs. Once she got down there, however, she looked incredulously at what she saw. Sitting at the kitchen table was Soun Tendo, in the middle of reading a paper as if there was nothing important going on today.

He'd been spending the entire week trying to pretend that his challenge match with Akane didn't exist, but she found this ridiculous. "Shouldn't you be preparing, or something?" She quipped, walking over to the coffee maker to start a pot.

"No need." Soun said, prompting an incredulous look from his middle daughter. In explanation, he smiled. "I'm sure that now that she's had some time to come to her senses, Akane won't challenge me for the school."

"You've got to be kidding me." Nabiki drawled, but could see from the look on her father's face that he wasn't. "Idiot." She muttered, but it was too low for him to hear. "Shouldn't you at least attempt to pretend you take your daughter's martial arts challenge seriously?" She asked, acidly, dumping the coffee into the maker's top and walking back to the table to let it percolate.

Soun nodded. "Perhaps that is a good idea." He muttered, and put down his paper, standing up and going off somewhere, apparently the Dojo. Distantly, Nabiki wondered where Genma was, but shrugged it off. Maybe the fat old guy had taken off somewhere? As it was, it wasn't her problem. Just as she was reaching for Soun's paper, she heard the sound of someone knocking on the front door.

Sighing, she got up, going to answer it because she was pretty sure no one else would. As it opened, she was expecting either Ranma or Akane. They, however, weren't who she got. "Kasumi?" She asked, seeing her smiling older sister standing on the other side. Next to her stood Dr. Tofu, equally cheerful looking. "Dr… Tofu?"

"Hello Nabiki." The chiropractor said, smiling at her in a friendly way. Kasumi didn't greet her at all, she simply reached forward and hugged her sister warmly.

Nabiki returned the hug, before turning back and blinking at the two, confused. "What're you doing here, Kasumi? And Dr. Tofu? Why aren't you going insane?"

Kasumi giggled. "You must not have had your first cup of coffee yet." She observed. "You're never very tactful before then. As for me, I came to see Akane fight daddy." She frowned at that thought, but her face cleared up almost instantly, only Nabiki's observant eye catching the expression.

"As for me," Tofu said, seeing that Nabiki was looking at him curiously. "It's a long story." Seeing how he was blushing, the middle Tendo made a mental note to find out what that story was as soon as possible. It probably had some major blackmail potential.

"Daddy's in the Dojo getting ready." The younger brown haired girl said, then blinked. "And how did you know about Akane's fight?"

Kasumi smiled easily. "Elder Cologne told me about it, actually." She said, then shook her head. "You know, you could have informed me, it is important after all."

Nabiki shrugged and looked away guiltily. "I didn't want to worry you while you were at college." She explained.

Kasumi didn't respond, only walking into the house and taking a look around before her expression descended into a very noticeable and very annoyed grimace. "What in the world happened here?" She asked, seeing that the living room was full of Sake bottles, and there were dirty tracks all over the main hall.

"Sorry, sis, but I haven't had any time to clean." Nabiki explained. She could have sworn that she heard Kasumi gasp something along the lines of 'My poor house,' but dismissed it as her hearing things.

HR.

About half an hour later, Kasumi was cleaning the house, simply because sitting there and looking at it dirty was driving her insane, while Soun sat in the living room and cried about his oldest daughter yelling at him.

Nabiki had to admit that he definitely had something to cry about, since Kasumi had actually raised her voice at him, and ranted at him for thirty seconds about his responsibility for helping keep the house clean. She was relatively sure that the only reason she'd been spared the lecture was because her room and the kitchen were clean and well maintained.

Inwardly, she marveled at the change only a month away from the house had caused in Kasumi. She was still the same person, but she had seemed to become much more confident about saying what was bothering her, and Nabiki considered it an improvement. Hearing yet another knock at the door, she started to get up to get it when she saw Kasumi dash down the hall. She had to admit, she had missed that.

HR.

Ranma looked around Nerima for the second time in two weeks, again from the passenger side of Haruka's car. He wasn't sure what was going to happen today, but he'd prepared himself for Akane's victory and her loss equally. "Ya know ya didn't have ta come with me." He commented, for the second time, looking back towards Haruka.

The blonde shrugged. "What, and leave you alone with Akane?" She asked, smirking teasingly.

"It ain't…" Ranma started to object, before Haruka cut him off.

"It was a joke." She said, shaking her head. "You really shouldn't worry so much. I don't know how you got to thinking that I'd blow up at you every time you looked at another girl."

"Sorry, reflex." He muttered, as the Tendo house came into view down the street.

"Well, we're going to have to work on retraining your reflexes." Haruka quipped, pulling the car to a stop and turning off the engine. "Now, are we going to go in there or what?"

"Yeah, sure." Ranma replied, and the two climbed out of the vehicle. As they did so, they heard the sound of someone shouting, and doing so loudly. "…nd you're sitting here crying?!"

"Hmm, I'd recognize that shout anywhere." Ranma muttered. "Wonder what got Akane so upset?"

Haruka looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Wow, she's got a pretty loud yell." She muttered, as the two walked into the Tendo yard. They didn't have to knock on the door, as someone had apparently opened the doors from the tea room into the side yard.

"Hey, you startin the fight without me, Tomboy?" Ranma called, as soon as the two got into easy speaking range of the gathering of people in the tea room.

Akane stopped glaring at her father, and turned to Ranma with a surprised look on her face. "Oh, Hi Ranma… I didn't expect you to be here yet."

"Yeah, well here I am." He said, shrugging. "What's goin on?"

Akane frowned darkly. "Dad's trying to talk me out of the challenge." She explained. "His reasoning's pretty weak, something about how he couldn't possibly fight me."

Ranma nodded. "That so?" He asked, turning to Soun. "That mean you're gunna forfeit?"

Soun blinked and stopped the crying he had engaged in during Akane's tirade. "What?" He asked, confused.

"Well, if ya can't fight Akane, and you set the challenge time, that means ya forfeit 'n Akane gets the Tendo mastery by default."

"What?! But that's an outrage!" Soun thundered, jumping to his feet and glaring at Ranma.

The pigtailed boy just shrugged. "It's one 'o the rules you and Genma agreed to when the ol' freak made ya part of the school." He replied, casually. "Part of the whole 'Anything goes martial artists can't turn down a challenge' thing."

As Soun tried to argue with Ranma, Haruka noticed that there was a small group of people standing at the side of the tea room, talking amongst each other and not paying much attention to what was going on in the middle.

Walking over to them she recognized Nabiki, Dr. Tofu and Kasumi and greeted them.

"Hello, Haruka-san." Kasumi replied, cheerily, while Tofu simply nodded and Nabiki waved.

:"So, he been stalling for long?" The blonde asked, gesturing over at Soun.

Nabiki nodded. "Over an hour."

"Where's the other guy… Genma, right?" The blonde cracked her knuckles. "I'd like to talk to him."

Nabiki hid a smirk. From the look on Haruka's face, Genma had made yet another enemy, which was quite an accomplishment, since he'd only been conscious around the girl for a little over a minute. "Haven't seen him all morning." She answered, truthfully.

Haruka was about to ask something else, when the argument in the middle of the room finally broke. "If you truly wish this, then fine." Soun growled, having gone from crying to seemingly serious in moments.

"About time." Nabiki grumbled, and the small group walked to the Dojo.

HR.

"All right, it's to knockout or forfeit. Lethal moves are forbidden and will result in immediate loss, otherwise, anything goes. Akane is fighting for the rights of a master of the Tendo School, as well as access to all of its techniques, properties and students. Soun is fighting to retain his title and control of the Tendo School. If Akane wins, Soun may challenge her for the rights to the school in six months, if Soun wins, then she must wait three years and concede that Soun is her better and Sensei. Is this acceptable?" Ranma asked, rattling off the challenge terms that Haruka and Setsuna had helped him come up with during the week.

Akane nodded immediately, though she looked a little worried at the fact that she'd have to wait three years to re-challenge if she lost, though Soun pondered for a moment. Eventually, he nodded, though he looked distinctly worried, and threw a glance over to the Dojo's door.

Ranma wondered what that was about, but shrugged it off before stepping back. Raising his hand, he swung it down in a rapid motion. "Begin!" He called, and the two fighters took defensive positions, beginning to move for best advantage.

At the side of the Dojo, the spectators watched, and Ranma walked over to join them. Kasumi watched the scene playing out with worry, and Tofu and Haruka did so mainly with curiosity. The pigtailed martial artist couldn't even tell if Nabiki was watching or looking at the rafters, but he'd come to expect that from her.

In the middle of the room, Akane watched her father warily, waiting for him to make a move. He wasn't inclined to do so, doing his best to keep his defenses as tight as possible, but doing nothing else.

She got tired of waiting first, as was usual, and ran in to begin the first Melee. It was a brutal series of punches, calculated to stress Soun's guard, but he easily blocked each one of them… until Akane's last attack came at him at almost double her usual speed.

The blow hit the older man in the gut, causing him to double over, and Akane planted a leg into his stomach, sending him skidding backwards.

Soun got up, dusting himself off, and looked at Akane in astonishment. "That was good." He admitted.

She didn't reply, merely falling back into a stance. The next exchange ended similarly to the last, but now Akane was looking annoyed. "Why aren't you fighting back?" She demanded. Soun only got to his feet again, his defenses showing fewer holes again than last time. "You're even holding back in your defense, aren't you?"

He didn't answer, so Akane went in again. This time, Soun blocked all of her blows, even the faster ones she tried to catch him off guard with, but he winced evidently when she struck a point on his arm that had taken hits in both previous exchanges.

Frowning, Akane stood and looked at her father, thinking. He'd sparred with her using more effort than this before, so what in the world was he doing? Then, she understood… and it pissed her off.

"Don't you take me seriously?" She asked, her aura flaring around her. "Don't you get it!? I'm going to keep going until I win, and if you just sit there and defend, the fight's going to be long, painful, and the result's going to be the same." Seeing that he wasn't responding, she glared. "You just don't care, do you?" She asked. Running forward, she hammered into him again. "You don't care that I'm going to win this fight without even trying! You don't care that you've been ignoring all of us for YEARS, you don't care that you're a joke of a father, do you!?" She asked, her blows getting heavier with each statement.

Soun just absorbed them, and stood back up, though there were clear bruises on his arms now as well as a black eye.

"You haven't cared since mother died, have you?!" Akane yelled, her anger increasing with every second. This wasn't in the way that she was always angry at Ranma when she was engaged to him. This anger was deeper, and mixed with something else. "No," She spat. "It was always easier to hide behind your 'oh, poor me' act, wasn't it? And now… you can't even be bothered to fight back."

"…No…" Soun breathed, shaking his head.

Haruka fidgeted at the side of the room, feeling vaguely like she had when she and Konatsu had listened to Ukyo's talk with Ranma, as if she was seeing an intensely private moment, in spite of the fact that she was in the middle of a Dojo, watching a fight.

"No?" Akane asked, responding to her father's statement. "Then prove it." Her next words, said to Ranma in a scream of outrage so many times before, were clipped out shortly as if the most important things she'd ever said. "Fight… me… for… real. Don't take the easy way out this time." And with that, she charged again, her feet pounding across the Dojo's floor boards, her fist wreathed in angry red Chi as she focused on it in an attempt to bring forth a knock-out blow.

It was then that her father moved, fluidly stepping around the punch and lashing out, catching Akane in the shin. She stumbled, and turned a painful looking fall into a role, coming up on the older man's other side and delivering a high spinning kick that he dodged, before launching a palm strike at her stomach. Akane easily stepped back from the strike, but Soun had managed to buy himself some more distance.

"Fine." He growled. "If it means so damned much to you, I'll fight you for real!" The older man's hands glowed, and a white light coalesced into them, taking on the form of a long staff-like weapon with a slightly curved blade on one end. Soun swung the Naginata around for a moment, testing its balance, and then took a defensive stance with it.

"What the hell?" Haruka asked, blinking at the sight of the man summoning a weapon out of nowhere. "Where'd he get that thing?" Seeing that Ranma wasn't saying anything, she continued, "And aren't you going to stop him for using a weapon?"

Ranma shook his head. "Anything goes." He replied, shortly. She just gaped, but saw that Nabiki and Kasumi were nodding in agreement. She didn't have any time to say anything else, as Soun apparently finished testing the balance of his weapon and ran at Akane with it, sweeping for her legs. Fortunately for Haruka's piece of mind, he was using the staff end for most of his strikes, but this was getting ridiculous.

Akane easily skipped over several swings, before sending a hard punch at her father's face. He brought up the staff to block, catching her fist on the guard, but she managed to get a good clean hit in against his ribs.

The two then broke apart, and Soun scowled. "You won't take the school that easily, daughter." He spat, standing as if the last blow hadn't happened.

To his surprise, he saw that Akane was smiling at him, rather than the roiling anger she'd been exuding when all he'd done was defend. "Good." She said, and grinned wildly.

HR.

Five minutes later, Haruka was very confused, and it seemed that the fight hadn't gone anywhere. Both sides occasionally got good hits in, including a blow with the Naginata that had drawn blood from Akane's arm, but they were both moving as fast as they had been when Soun had started fighting. This fight wasn't as fast paced as the one between Ranma and Mousse, but that was vaguely like saying that an M-16 wasn't as deadly as an M-1 Garand rifle.

The fight was still fast enough that she couldn't see some of the blows, and given the way Akane's fist had torn its way through the Dojo wall like it wasn't even there the one time she'd hit it, the strength was quite frightening as well. Still, she thought, something had to give. She was right, and something did, but it wasn't what she was hoping for.

During Akane's next quick series of attacks, Soun's staff caught the female martial artist's leg going just as quickly in the other direction. There was a very loud crack, and a good amount of Soun's weapon spun off into the middle of the floor, but the howl of pain Akane gave off in response gave plenty of evidence that she'd taken just as much damage.

Springing off with her other leg, she tried to land several feet away from her father, but the leg gave under any pressure what-so-ever, and she fell to one knee. "Do you yield?" Soun asked, looking to his daughter with some concern, but keeping his defenses up.

Akane smirked, hauling herself unsteadily to her feet. "To borrow a phrase, I don't lose." She said, but the pained grimace on her face said otherwise.

"Please, Akane." Soun said, his statement sounding more sincere than anything he'd said all day. "You've proven yourself an impressive martial artist."

Akane shook her head, sadly. "Will you start training me again?" She asked, simply.

"But I…" Soun said, caught slightly off guard by the question.

"I didn't think so…" Akane replied, and started limping towards her father. He reluctantly resumed his stance, waiting for her to attack. She didn't make him wait long, abruptly going from a limp to a full on run, though her eyes started filling with tears. "Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken!" She yelled, just as she reached her father's guard, and pulled her right arm back.

Nabiki, Kasumi and even Ranma gasped in shock, and the pigtailed boy blinked. "But, she can't know th…" He started, just as Akane let her attack fly. Soun was having very similar thoughts, but being in the middle of a fight with Akane, was changing his defense to try and counter the flurry of blows anyways. The last thing he heard was her cry of "An Opening!" before his world exploded in pain from Akane's hastily thrown haymaker to the jaw.

As Soun hit the Dojo floor with a resounding crash, Akane slumped to her knees and panted in exhaustion. Tofu immediately moved onto the battlefield to check out her injuries, while Ranma moved to check Soun. His jaw wasn't broken, but he'd been knocked down hard enough that he'd be out for a bit. "Winner by incapacitation, Akane Tendo." He said, loudly enough for everyone else in the room to hear.

"I'd be happier about that if my leg didn't feel like it was on fire." Akane groaned, wincing as Tofu poked at the wounded appendage.

"There's some really bad bruising, but I think the bone's intact." The doctor reported, clinically. Akane sighed in relief, especially after the older man had applied some pressure points to dull the pain. "So, I did it." She said, smiling up at her sisters and Ranma.

Kasumi frowned slightly. "Did you have to say those things to daddy?" She asked, looking sorrowfully at the man who was still sprawled out on the ground.

"She was just saying what we have all thought." Nabiki said, then snorted. "It almost looked like it got through his head this time, too."

"I know, but it seemed so… cruel." Kasumi said, softly, before shaking her head sadly and starting for the house. "I'll go make us some tea before we leave."

"Thanks, Kasumi." Haruka called, as everyone else seemed too busy with other things to say it.

Just then, she heard the sound of a door slamming open, and loud footsteps. "Stop the match!" A booming, angry sounding voice yelled, causing everyone to turn in surprise to the door to the main house.

A few seconds later, a panting, red faced Genma Saotome ran into the Dojo, waving around a roll of paper. "Stop the…. Match…" He gasped out, sinking to the ground.

"I'm afraid it's too late, Saotome-san." Kasumi said, cheerfully. "Akane and father have already fought."

"It doesn't matter." Genma grumbled between gasps. "I just didn't want Soun to have to beat up on his daughter for no reason, since the boy isn't fit to officiate the thing, and as the only master of the school other than Soun, I refuse!"

Ranma's eye twitched, but it was Nabiki who spoke next. "What are you talking about, idiot?" She drawled, raising an eyebrow.

"It's simple!" Genma proclaimed. "Ronin cannot hold titles or land, so the boy can't possibly be the grand master of the school, and I'm certainly not going to judge this farce." He sniffed.

"Um, isn't that law a couple centuries out of date?" Haruka asked.

"It doesn't really matter." Ranma replied. "According to law, I've been adopted anyways. Give it up, old man."

"You've been adopted?" Akane asked, having finished getting tended by Tofu, but still unable to stand up without pain.

Ranma shrugged. "There's a lady named Setsuna who wants me 'n Haruka to go to this university called infinity academy, for some reason. Anyways, since you gotta have a last name to be registered, she said she officially adopted me into her family until I…" He trailed off, blushing and throwing a sidelong glance at Haruka, then just shut up.

Nabiki's eyebrow would have climbed into her hairline at this point if that were at all possible, especially since she recognized the name Setsuna, but just before she was about to comment, Genma beat her to it. "Fine then, boy!" He growled. "You leave me no choice! I challenge you for grand mastery of the school!"

Ranma blinked several times, and looked over the old man incredulously. He was still panting slightly for breath, and he could still see a few bandages covering his form from whatever he'd been recovering from the week before. "Ol' man, would ya just give it up already?" He asked, sighing in exasperation.

Genma sputtered incoherently, glanced at Soun, who was still unconscious on the ground, and turned a glare on Ranma. "This is not over, boy." He growled, stomping out of the Dojo with everyone else looking on.

END.

END Notes:

In case anyone hasn't picked this up and is about to write me letters of outrage for Akane learning the Amaguriken, she doesn't know it. She said the attack's name as a bluff to make her father prepare for an attack she couldn't possibly pull off, and then threw another, much simpler, one which his defenses weren't prepared for. Now, if I hear anyone saying anything about Akane and the Amaguriken, I will call them an idiot and refer them to this note. Thank you.

Misato(Barges into the scene.): Hey, what's this about Akane learning the Amaguriken in a week? That's just stupid and totally implausible, and I…

Weebee(Points up.)

Misato: Oh, um, yeah. Leaving now…. (Sculks off.)


	41. Chapter 41, The Future of the Schools

Misato(Stomps into view.): Hey, you! Yeah, you. The guys from the fukufics forums. I've heard you talking about this fic. You know, about how Weebee's been sitting on chapters and releasing them once a day? Well, let me say I'm a little angry about that! Why, you ask? Well, YOU aren't the one who has to stand behind the idiot with a bull horn and yell at him to get his butt moving on these things every day!

JRA: Yeah, and besides which, given how damned impatient this guy is when I'm proof reading the fics, calling me and asking if I'm done every ten minutes, if he tried to hold a fic back for more than a few hours he'd probably have an aneurism!

Ami(Walks on stage and gives them a perturbed look.): Should we really be yelling at the readers like this?

JRA and Misato(look at her):blink blink

Ami: sigh I'm sorry, folks. Please, ignore these two. They're just a little stressed… enjoy the fic.

Chapter 41, The Future of the Schools.

"Damned boy…." Genma Saotome muttered to himself, standing outside of the wall of the Tendo compound and holding the tightly rolled papers that he had been carrying in his hands. "This was never supposed to go this far."

He supposed that he could see the downfall of his plans, now that he looked, as soon as Nodoka had shown up. That was when Ranma had started to chafe more than ever under the bonds that had been laid upon him. Before then, though the boy had been miserable, Genma had assumed that things could be resolved somehow, and Ranma would marry Akane. Unfortunately, after that point, he'd started to get more and more frustrated, culminating in him renouncing his family name and leaving Nerima.

"Well, Genma… looks like this idea didn't work." He muttered, touching the seal of the Saotome family that had been inscribed on the bundle with his finger. "Plus, I bet Soun'll be pissed at me for failing him today." He sighed, withdrawing the pack he'd hidden in a bush next to the compound's outer wall, and slung it over his shoulder. "Time for an extra long training trip to think up a new plan! Mark my words, boy, you will fall in line, come hell or high water!" He laughed loudly, and quite obviously forced, before starting down the street and out of the region. The very few pedestrians who were around the street at the time threw him odd looks, but he didn't notice as his brain began to whirl with new possibilities.

HR.

"Ranma, can I talk with you for a moment?" The pigtailed martial artist looked up from where he was tending Soun Tendo's injuries in the first floor guest room, as the older man had to wake up and accept his defeat before Ranma could leave, to see Dr. Tofu standing in the doorway and looking at him.

He gulped nervously. He hadn't really wanted to deal with Tofu right after the incident on Wednesday, even if it had apparently gone well, but supposed it was inevitable. "Yeah, sure." He said, standing from his crouch next to Soun's futon. As he walked out of the room, he saw Akane walking in to take his place and smiled to her, only to get a nod in return.

The Gi wearing doctor didn't start to talk right away, leading Ranma out into the dojo, which had cleared out since the fight, and closing the door first. "Hey, doc, is something seriously wrong?" Ranma asked, suddenly getting a lot more worried at the amount of privacy the man was seeking.

Tofu frowned. "That's something I want to find out." He said. "Has anything… odd... happened to Kasumi in the last few weeks?"

"Odd?" Ranma asked, confused.

"Yes." Tofu replied. "Her aura's been manipulated."

HR.

Soun woke to an experience that rather strongly reminded him of when Ranma and his father had first shown up. That was, he was laying on a futon with a cold compress on his forehead, with one of his daughters looking down on him worriedly. This time, it was Akane, and her presence plus the throbbing pain in his jaw brought back the memories of the fight he had participated in earlier in the day.

He thought for a moment of trying to brush the events off as if they hadn't happened, but heard the voice of his youngest daughter in his mind. "Don't take the easy way out." He grimaced, and the facial expression seemed to notify her that he was awake.

"Are you okay?" She asked, leaning in closer to look over his face.

He sighed. "No, I don't think I am." He mumbled, though so softly that she almost missed it. Seeing that she was starting to become more worried, he continued. "Have you ever had the feeling that you've spent the last few years of your life screwing up in every possible way?"

Akane smiled sadly. "Once or twice." She admitted, and a pained expression flitted across her face. Soun winced, remembering that his youngest child had had her fiancé run out on her less than three months earlier.

He thought silently for a moment, trying to decide what to say next. "I assume you won." He mumbled, moving one hand up to rub at his jaw. She nodded. "So, I suppose you're my master in the art now." He chuckled. "I never thought I would say that with you so young."

Akane actually found herself giggling, and wondered why she still loved this man who had evoked more hatred than Ranma had in his entire stay here in one afternoon. "Just don't call me that outside of the Dojo, okay? It would be weird."

Soun chuckled a bit, before extending a hand. "Do you mind helping me up?" He asked. "I'm still a little dizzy from that final punch."

Akane nodded, but he noticed as she helped him to his feet that she winced every time she put any pressure on the leg he'd hit. Still, she was holding up well, and for once, he had no desire to go off and cry over his misfortune. This made him smile as the two proceeded out into the tea room, where Kasumi, Nabiki and Haruka were waiting.

HR.

"Okay, lemme get this straight." Ranma said, recapping what Tofu had told him over the past couple of minutes. "Ya think someone's been screwin 'round with Kasumi's aura 'cuz she finally got up the courage to go after you?" The pigtailed boy snorted. "Even I knew she had a crush on ya, it's not like it'd take people manipulatin her to get her to flirt with you."

Tofu shook his head. "No, I mean I've actually compared her aura with an old scan I did, it's definitely been changed."

Ranma blinked. "How'd you manage to scan Kasumi's aura before? I mean, with how your glasses fog up, I doubt ya coulda seen it."

"It's actually an adaptation of one of Happosai's techniques…" Tofu started, before he saw Ranma's horrified and disgusted look. "No! I didn't do that!" He clarified, waving his hands frantically. "She gives me food wrapped in cloth sometimes, and I read off of that."

"Oh, um, sorry Doc." Ranma said, sheepishly, while the older man gave him an annoyed and put upon look. "So, what's different about her aura?"

Tofu shrugged. "It's been super-charged with Chi. More specifically, a massive boost of confidence." He frowned, then blushed. "It actually wouldn't make her act any differently than she normally does, really, other than, well, being more assertive in doing things and talking to people. It isn't a threat, really, but I'm worried."

Ranma stopped, tempted to say that if it was something so simple, not to worry about it, but Tofu honestly did look concerned so he ranged his memory back over his interactions with the oldest Tendo over the last few weeks. It was then that he blinked, his eyes widening. "I don't suppose havin her aura sucked out 'o her body then hit with a Moko-Takabisha at full power'd do it, would it?" He asked.

Tofu instantly narrowed his eyes. "And how, exactly, did THAT happen?" He asked, his glasses shining dangerously.

"Well, um, there was this…" Ranma started, trying to think of a way of explaining the Youma attack without revealing his new 'side job' to Tofu, when he heard the Dojo's door slide open.

"Ranma? Oh, there you are." Came Haruka's voice, as the blonde poked her head into the room. "Mr. Tendo's awake, and he says he wants to talk to you."

'Thank you!' Ranma thought, wanting to run up and hug the blonde in sheer gratitude, but stifled that reaction and spoke. "Well, then, I should probably get back there before Akane or her old man go off, it was nice talking to you Tofu-Sensei!"

"But I…" Tofu started, before Ranma walked out of the dojo, and he let off an irritated sigh.

HR.

It only took a couple of minutes after that for everyone to gather in the main room of the house, Akane and Soun sitting formally at the table as Ranma walked in, while the others sat in chairs around the room.

Settling down on the other side of the table, the pigtailed boy was surprised to see that Soun wasn't crying or yelling, merely sitting there formally with his hands on his knees. "Grand Master." The man said, bowing as Ranma looked at him oddly.

The pigtailed boy scratched the back of his head nervously, knowing that he was technically supposed to be addressed that way, but feeling slightly embarrassed by it. "Just stick ta Ranma, okay?" He asked.

To his surprise, Akane smirked at him. "What is it master, don't you like being treated with proper respect?"

Ranma sighed as he saw the smirk. "Ya wanna stop playin around?" He demanded.

In her chair across the room, Nabiki couldn't help but agree, and was wondering what had gotten into her little sister and father. Things had definitely taken a turn for the odd, but as she thought about it, a glimmer of hope started to show in the back of her mind.

"Yes, I agree." Soun said, referring to Ranma's statement. "Now that the challenge has been completed, there are some consequences. How are we to proceed from here on?"

'Well…" Ranma said, throwing a confused glance to the man for a moment before continuing. "Akane's the master of the Tendo School, but she doesn't really know much of it. I mean, half her more effective moves are parts of the Saotome style she started pickin up from sparrin with me, and the other half couldn't possibly be all your style offers." He smirked. "Especially given that weapon trick I saw ya pull, Tendo-san."

Akane grimaced, but couldn't find a way to counter Ranma's judgement. Most of the parts of her own style she knew were basic Kata or precision exercises that she'd practiced for so long that they'd become more effective almost through force of will alone. "So… what do we do about it?" She asked.

"Well, I'd ask your father ta train ya up to the new role ya hold in the school, but he'd probably refuse." Ranma started, before seeing that Soun was holding up a hand to speak. Looking at him oddly, he shrugged.

"I believe that you put too little faith in me, master." The old man said, then he frowned. "Though, perhaps, it is deserved. Still, I am willing to help Akane in her duties at the Dojo."

The entire room, aside from Haruka, who didn't know what was going on, and Akane, who had already known what was going to happen, gave a massive double-take. "Did he just say…" Nabiki asked, throwing a glance at Kasumi. Seeing her older sister's numb nod, she quickly whipped out a folder full of papers from apparently nowhere and started rummaging through them. "With a teacher already trained, we could…" She started mumbling, writing things down.

The three in the middle of the room didn't seem to notice the middle Tendo's frantic scribbling. "Do you swear to that on your honor as a member of the Tendo branch of the anything goes?" Ranma asked, struggling not to burst into a big smile aimed at Akane.

Tendo nodded. "And I understand what violation means." He said, quietly. Seeing Ranma's somewhat baffled expression, he felt that he should try and explain. "Master, I have… not been the best martial artist, or father, for a while. It took Akane confronting me about it for me to realize how off track I had become. Kasumi and Nabiki are already mostly grown, though if they ask for help I will try my best, but Akane has a goal that I am capable of assisting with, and I intend to do so." He looked down, staring at his hands. "At least that will help me repay my debt to them and their mother."

"Daddy…" Kasumi breathed, standing from her chair and walking over to kneel next to him and clasp his hand. Nabiki didn't move, though she did look up from her ledger for a moment to give her father an odd look.

"Well, uh," Ranma said, totally derailed. He was all ready to go into a suggestion that Akane use the school's training scrolls, which she had access to by right, to learn the rest of the Tendo branch, but Mr. Tendo was apparently taking care of that for him, and given the promise with which he had offered his assistance, Akane's training was as good as taken care of, since if Soun broke the promise he'd be cast out of the school…. Permanently. "That's… um, good. You should start training Akane as soon as possible, then." He finally said, the entire rest of his speech deserting him completely.

Kasumi hugged her father happily, while Akane's lips twitched up in a smile.

"Will he teach students?" Nabiki interrupted, causing the group to look over at her. "I was planning on trying to get the Dojo open again as soon as Akane had enough knowledge to teach mid to high level classes." She smirked sarcastically. "Has daddy turned over enough of a new leaf to agree to that?"

"Nabiki?" Kasumi asked, shocked at her younger sister's behavior, but Akane reluctantly nodded, seeing Nabiki's point.

"I'm not sure if I can take large classes by myself, but I would be willing to start the dojo up again, yes." Soun said, looking into Nabiki's eyes without flinching. "Now, perhaps I should show the master and Akane the school scrolls and other effects."

Ranma nodded, then grimaced again. "Would ya stop callin me that?" He asked, annoyed, as the three walked out of the room.

Once they were clear, Haruka looked at Nabiki. "You didn't seem too convinced." She noted, casually.

The middle Tendo frowned. "Yeah, well, Daddy's talked about opening the dojo before, and nothing much happened." She said, bitterly.

"Nabiki, he does seem to be trying this time." Kasumi said, reproachfully, while Tofu stayed out of the way.

"Yeah, I know… but let's just say I'll believe it when I see it." The middle Tendo replied.

"I don't know your father very well, only met him twice, but is he that bad?" Haruka asked, concerned.

Nabiki sighed. "Not bad, exactly… he's just been hiding away in his little world for so long, especially after that jackass Saotome showed up."

"Nabiki, language!" Kasumi interjected.

"Sorry, I think I've been talking to Kuonji too much." Nabiki said, then continued. "I just don't know."

Kasumi sighed, then perked up. "Well, you never know. Like you said, maybe some of what Akane said to him got through this time." She said, optimistically.

Nabiki nodded, somewhat sullenly, before going back to her folder.

HR.

"Okay, so I'll be back ta see how this place's goin next week." Ranma said, as he stood at the Tendo home's front door with Haruka. Akane, Nabiki and Soun were standing in front of them. Kasumi and Tofu had left only a few minutes earlier.

The youngest daughter nodded. "Thanks, Ranma." She said, while Nabiki just smirked at him.

He fidgeted uncomfortably. "Yer the one who fought today, Tomboy." He said. "I was just a referee for once." Then, he smirked. "Maybe if ya learn all yer side of the school's techniques, we could spar seriously some time."

"That would be nice." Akane said, before the two visitors turned to leave.

As they walked down the path out front of the main house, Haruka turned to the taller boy. "That was interesting." She said, referring to the day's events.

Ranma frowned. "Yeah, but I'm sorry I had ta drag you along for this."

She shrugged. "Wouldn't have missed that fight for much." She commented. "Do you think you can teach me some of those moves?"

"I'm working on it." He said. "Unfortunately, you're a little too far on my side of the speed and strength balance to pull off some of the moves Akane incorporates into her style. Well, ya could, but it'd leave ya way too open."

Haruka nodded, and then suddenly turned her head to the side. She could have sworn she saw something moving in the shadows of one of the compound walls as the two left the front gate. "Did you see that?" She asked, turning to Ranma.

He looked around, and shook his head. "I didn't see anything.." He said, slowly.

"It was this little black thing…" Haruka said, then shrugged. "Probably wasn't important." As she climbed into her car and Ranma joined her on the other side, Sasuke Sarugakure clung to the vehicle's frame tenaciously.

"Oh, this is going to hurt." He moaned. As the vehicle started moving, he just barely stopped himself from cursing lady Kodachi's name. "Good Ninja don't do that…" He kept repeating to himself… until the car drove over a particularly raised bump.

HR.

An empty, mist shrouded place saw its first visitor other than its mistress or her team-mates in a very long time, as a rent tore itself in space-time, and a brown haired boy with a bandana tumbled out of it. He looked around, panicked, for a few moments, and then picked a random direction to run in. "Damn… you… Ranma…" He panted, the circles under his eyes giving evidence that he hadn't slept in quite a long time. Pushing himself forward, he disappeared into the fog, and the grayness was empty once again, but only for a short several moments.

After those moments were over, the rent in space-time opened again, this time in a much more regular shape, and a blue, watery light filled it. Four people in military camouflage came rolling through it, P90 sub-machineguns at the ready. A tall dark-skinned man with a strange symbol on his head and the only female, a woman with Major's rank insignia and blonde hair, quickly fanned out and took stock of the situation.

"Looks like we're clear this time." The Major said, sighing in relief.

"Good." The oldest member of the team, a brown and grey haired man, said as he let his gun drop to a relaxed, but ready position. "Better than the time with those alien bugs, at least."

The entire rest of the team, with the exception of the tall dark-skinned guy, shuddered at that thought, and then they all began to take a look around their current surroundings. "Hmm, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." The older man said, noting the mist that seemed to go on forever.

The woman kneeled down, and knocked curiously on the floor of the chamber. "Not any rock I've ever heard of." She mumbled. "At least, not readily identifiable."

"Can anyone see the lost guy?" The older man asked.

"No, Colonel." The tall black man reported, and was followed by a shake of the head from the other two team members.

Ten trips to find this guy in as many weeks, and he keeps getting away." The fourth member of the team, a brown haired man with glasses, complained. "I think we should forget about how he compromises the gate's navigational system and give up, already."

"Daniel, wasn't it you and Sam who kept going on about how, if we could talk to this guy, we could find out whole new ways to use the gate?" The older man asked, sarcastically.

Daniel grimaced, and the blonde haired woman did as well, before stepping forward into the mist. Within a few seconds, she could be heard yelling back to the rest of the team. "Jack! Over here!"

Thinking that something was wrong, the rest of her group immediately dashed in the same direction she'd left in, only for them to come to a stunned halt. There, in front of them, was a massive and smoothly cut circle of stone. The first thing that leapt to all of their minds was the word 'Stargate," but the device was far too smooth to be that, and they couldn't see a DHD anywhere around it.

"What the hell? Did we just walk into an episode of star trek?" The older man, Jack, asked before letting his mouth hang open.

Daniel quickly hurried over to join the blonde haired woman, as she examined the massive stone construct in fascination. "These symbols… I've never seen anything like them before!" He exclaimed, running his hands over the recessed carvings that covered the sides of the artifact.

"Do you think it could be a new type of gate?" The woman asked, excitedly, as she stepped around to examine the device from another angle.

"You guys consider it really is the guardian of forever?" Jack asked sarcastically. Both Daniel and the blonde woman turned to him, looked at him in astonishment for a moment, then shook their heads and returned to their inspection. "Guess not…" He muttered, shrugging. "So, if it's another gate, can we use it to get back to the SGC?"

"I'm not sure, sir." The woman said. "I can't even see any recognizable interface, but it's possible that there's one hidden on the device somewhere."

"Maybe we can just ask it." Jack offered, then cleared his throat. "Hey, you want to take us back home?"

The woman just shook her head, stifling a grin, until the sound of an angry voice speaking in a language they couldn't understand echoed through the chamber. "How dare you trespass in the domain of time!"

"Huh, that's weird… I thought everything on star trek spoke English." Jack quipped, looking oddly at the large stone arch.

""I'm behind you." The voice called out, this time speaking clear and perfect English and evidently quite annoyed. Daniel blinked, before pointing over Jack's shoulder with his eyes wide.

Spinning around and raising his gun, the commander of the SG-1 team came face to garnet staff with a very irritated Sailor Pluto.

"You've got to be kidding me." He muttered, trying to hold back laughter at the woman in the ridiculously short skirt who had just appeared.

END.

This chapter is a little short, and I'm sorry for that. I just couldn't get the juices flowing quite right today. Still, I hope you enjoyed it.

Oh, and Fukufics? Don't worry, I'm not mad at you at all, we were just playing around. Well, Misato's mad at you, but I've had her going completely sober for a week straight to help write this stuff, and she'd be annoyed at Kasumi and Beldandy tag-teaming to make her life perfect at the moment.

Anyhow, please read and review.

Oh, One more thing! I'd like to thank all of my reviewers for knocking this fic over ONE THOUSAND REVIEWS! It's my birthday in a few days, and you guys just gave me one of the coolest gifts, so yeah, thanks. :)


	42. Chapter 42, but what is the question!

All right, here ya go. Sorry this one took a couple days to come out, but I had some problems. Anyhow, hope you enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 42, But what is the question?!

General Hammond sighed and leaned back in the comfortable chair in his office at Stargate Command, looking over the top of a neatly typed report at his lead SG team and wondering if he should just court-martial them or send them off for psych evaluations first.

"All right." He said, slowly. "So you opened the gate to the lost boy's last distortion point," He started, using the name that the complex had come up with to identify their little wandering problem, then continued. "Then, you found yourself in an extra-dimensional space where you met a short skirted magical warrior with an incredibly advanced supergate?"

Colonel Jack O'Neill nodded.

"Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds?" Hammond snapped, suddenly lunging up and forward in his seat to pin one of his oldest friends with a piercing glare.

"Oh, I'm vaguely aware." Jack replied, deadpan. "Look General, I know I have a tendency to joke around, but I had a crackling energy staff shoved in my face for about five minutes before we could explain to this chick that we weren't there to attack her gate, and then she just kicked us out. The fact that we ended up landing on top of Dr. Frasier is simply bad luck. Funny, but bad luck."

"He's telling the truth, sir." Major Samantha Carter said, stepping forward to stand by her commander. "I have no intention of claiming it was magic, more like an energy weapon we haven't seen before and some sort of transmitter and receiverless teleportation, but it did happen."

"Including the bit with the Japanese schoolgirl uniform with the extremely short skirt and the heart shaped staff?" The base's commander asked, raising an eyebrow.

Carter and O'Neill both looked slightly uncomfortable, but nodded, and were joined by their two team mates.

"Luckily for you four, there's actually a record of people like the one you described." Hammond said, sighing. "They call themselves the Sailor Senshi, and are usually seen around Japan. now that we know they hold some sort of stargate, they've become our problem."

"Wait, you mean we have to go talk to the green haired lady again?" O'Neill said. "I don't think Dr. Fraisure would like it if I fell on her again."

The general shook his head. "I'm afraid not. The gate operators tell me that the last lost boy rupture was somehow sealed, but we'll be keeping an eye on these… 'Sailor Warriors' from now on. Oh, and Jackson?"

"Yes, sir?" Daniel Jackson asked, stepping forward rather nervously and hoping that he could avoid any part in this ridiculous chain of events.

"I suggest you keep working on your Japanese, SG-1 is now assigned to negotiations with the Senshi if we ever manage to get them in one place." Seeing the four frown, he continued. "That is all, dismissed."

After the SG team left his office, the general reached into the back of the bottom drawer of his desk and withdrew a small flask, unscrewed the lid and took a long pull of the contents. Capping it again, he hid it and sighed. "Explaining THIS to the secretary of defense is going to be fun…" He muttered. "I love my job."

HR.

Sunday morning dawned uneventfully for most of the residents of the Minato ward. One look at the sky said that it would be a nice day, even if the night before had been rather nippy, and almost everyone, including Haruka and Ranma were feeling pretty content. Well, Ranma was, Haruka was feeling a little annoyed as she tried to catch the black haired super-ball that she could call her fiancé in the Meiou home's back yard. The two occasionally sparred in the mornings, but this time was different. Ranma had insisted on seeing just how quickly she could make herself go, and she was finding out that it was quite fast, especially with her frustration.

Growling as she missed him by only a few inches, Haruka vowed that she would wipe the smirk off of the pigtailed boy's face. Quite frankly, it galled her that Ranma was a little faster than her as well as being so much stronger, since her speed was pretty well her pride and joy, but she really wasn't surprised. Leaping away from him, she stopped to catch her breath. "What, you give up?" He asked, giving her an infuriating smirk.

Haruka didn't answer, just panting, but she was gratified to see that he had a sheen of sweat covering his forehead. Re-positioning her feet, she met his eyes and narrowed her own. She had heard his advice before, about trying not to tense her body until the instant before movement, to give him as little time to predict her direction of travel as possible, and decided that this would be the last round of their little game.

Pushing herself forward and feeling the muscles in her legs protest under the sudden abuse, she catapulted towards her target at best possible speed, angling slightly to one side. As she expected, Ranma began to compensate by falling back the other way, but she'd calculated her arc so that it wouldn't take her too far beyond him even when he started doing that. Shoving her left foot into the ground on an angle, she resisted the urge to yelp in pain as she felt the muscles strain, and threw herself to the side with all her might. Sure enough, she slammed into the surprised pigtailed martial artist with a shoulder-check that bore him to the ground.

"So," She asked, as the two lay on the ground, her blonde hair hanging down in front of her face as she held herself above him with her arms. "Did I win?"

Ranma grinned up at her. "Guess ya did." He said. "I'm impressed, that was a pretty good tactic."

"Oh my, Haruka, I didn't know you were so forward." Came a snickering female voice from behind the blonde, and she turned her head to see Setsuna standing on the house's back porch and smirking at her teasingly.

"What are you talking about?" The blonde asked, hearing her words echoed by Ranma.

"Well, you DID just jump him." Setsuna said.

"I…" Haruka gaped at her, mouth opening and closing. "That isn't funny!" She grumbled, finally, looking away only to see that somehow Ranma had gotten out from under her and to his feet.

"We were just trainin." He grumbled, dusting himself off. "Why's everyone gotta assume something perverted, anyhow?"

Setsuna smirked. "Well, you are engaged, It's expected." She ducked back into the house snickering as Haruka gave her an annoyed glare and Ranma started scratching the back of his neck.

"Come on, we should probably go in and get cleaned up." She offered, looking down at her work-out clothes clad body, which was covered in grass stains and dirt smudges.

"Yeah," Ranma said, taking his mind off of Setsuna's comments. "Especially with what we gotta do later."

"Let's worry about that when we have to, all right?" Haruka asked, noticing that Ranma's face had become pensive when he'd mentioned that. The pigtailed boy nodded reluctantly, and the two proceeded inside.

In a tree across the yard, a small black clad figure huddled, shaking softly. Sasuke peered out from inside of his Ninja hood, his teeth still chattering from having spent the whole of last night outside. Though it had entered spring, the nights were still uncomfortably cold, and the little Ninja once again wanted to curse his mistress as the bumps on the back of his skull reminded him of the car ride he'd taken from Nerima. Still, he had a job to do, and the comment about having to do something important today piqued his interest.

HR.

Makoto Kino smiled to herself as she came home from her morning jog. She always enjoyed the feeling of health and energy the daily exercise gave her, at least when she could do it before school or on weekends. Stepping into her front hall and slipping off her shoes, she called out "I'm home!" as a notification to the moon cats.

To tell the truth, doing that also felt nice. The only Kino had lived alone for about five years now, ever since her last remaining relatives and guardians had died and she liked having others in her house… even if they were magical moon cats that were cursed to turn into humans.

She shook her head at how weird that thought was, and how interesting her life had become over the last year or so, before walking into the living room and stopping in her tracks. She surveyed the scene before her, trying to hold in laughter.

On her couch sat Artemis, in human form and trying to pull one of her shirts on. He was having little luck, as he had it inverted.

Luna was having less bad luck, but her choice of a bright red top with Makoto's old school's green skirt and what appeared to be a pair of jean shorts made the girl blink several times.

"Do I want to know what's going on here?" She asked, slowly.

Artemis growled from inside of the shirt, pulling the hem over his head to show that his white hair was in disarray. "How do humans do this every day?" He grumbled.

"We were going to attend the meeting today in human forms, to avoid startling Neptune." Luna explained, before giving her fellow guardian cat an annoyed look. "Unfortunately, Artemis is having a little trouble."

Makoto couldn't help but snicker a bit, before walking over and re-arranging the shirt. Fortunately for her blood pressure and hormone levels, he'd figured out the pants on his own, and, despite the fact that the clothes were made for a female, Makoto's tall stature made them fit him reasonably well. "How'd you manage to do that?" She asked, as she pulled the sleeves down to his wrists.

"It's not like I've had to do this before." He complained. "Besides, I always left the room when Minako got changed. It wouldn't be right not to."

"Aw, you're a gentleman, huh?" Makoto ribbed, before turning to Luna. "As for you…"

The black haired woman looked offended. "What's the matter with me?" She demanded.

Makoto sighed. "Come on, I'll take you into my room and find some stuff for you." She said, leading the rather confused neo-human in to the next room and closing the door.

On the couch, Artemis sighed. "After this gets fixed I'll never criticize Minako for taking so long to get ready again." He vowed, as he started to straighten up his disheveled hair.

HR.

Later that morning, Sailors Uranus and Neptune looked at a street map of Juuban. "Hmm, the Hikawa shrine… the map says it should be down this street." Uranus said. She was usually more comfortable navigating in a vehicle, but somehow thought that a Sailor Senshi driving around in Haruka Tenoh's car wouldn't be the smartest idea in the world.

"Is that it?" Neptune asked, pointing at the large arch of a shinto temple about half a block away.

Uranus's eyes widened and she blinked at the gate. "If it is, I've been here before." She answered. "I'm pretty sure this is the place I fought that demon on Monday."

"Kinda odd place for them ta ask us ta meet them then." Neptune muttered, then shrugged. "Well, guess we should get this over with."

Uranus nodded, and the two began to climb the stairs that lead from street level to the shrine. As they reached the top, the wind Senshi looked around, identifying small holes in the wall where the other Senshi had been held by the demon's prayer sticks. "Yeah, this is the place." She said, confidently.

"Well, what do we do?" Neptune asked. "Just go up 'n knock on the front door?"

"That girl said to meet at the Shrine, but I don't see anyone here… so I suppose we have no choice." Uranus said, then nodded decisively and walked up to the front door. Raising her fist, she rapped on it firmly several times.

The two outer Senshi waited for a few moments, wondering if anyone was going to answer the door as time went on, until it finally opened to reveal a young black haired girl, maybe about the same age as Ami, wearing a shrine maiden's garb.

The black haired girl looked at the two Senshi for a moment, and then her eyes popped wide. "What in the world are you two doing?!" She hissed, glaring at them.

"We were told to come here." Uranus replied, evenly. "Is there something wrong?"

The black haired girl sputtered for a moment, before huffing. "Grandpa, they're just some of my friends!" She yelled, turning back to the inside of the shrine for a moment.

"All right, Rei! You can take a break for a while to see them if you'd like!" A cheerful sounding old man's voice came from inside, and the girl sighed in relief.

"Come on, I've got to get you two out of sight." She hissed, and started walking.

Neptune and Uranus exchanged looks for a few seconds, before shrugging and following the girl. "Ya'know," Neptune observed. "When Ami told me ta meet the Senshi here, I assumed it was 'cuz the place was secure."

The black haired girl, obviously Rei, winced. "Yeah, well we probably should have thought things through first." She muttered. Sighing, she continued. "Too late now."

"So," Uranus said, taking a look around before speeking again. "You're one of the Senshi?"

"Sailor Mars." Rei reluctantly admitted, after making a perimeter check of her own. "And so far, this meeting is going great." She muttered, quietly enough for the outer Senshi to miss.

HR.

"Why are you here?" Sasuke gulped as he was being held against a wall by a Kodachi. Actually, he would have found the irony funny, if the blade wasn't ready to cut his head off.

"Wait, Konatsu-san, I am not here to harm your Ukyo-sama!" He croaked, and cursed himself for not being more alert. He'd been following Ranma and the blonde haired person he was with as mistress Kodachi had ordered, when the two of them had ducked into an alley. He had thought that they had spotted him, and had tried to find a good hiding place in case Ranma came out of the alley angry. Unfortunately, he'd ended up finding the place where Konatsu had hidden, apparently while following him.

The male Kunoichi sighed, sheathing his blade on his back and nodding to the other Ninja. "Fine, Sasuke, may I ask what you were doing, then? I must ensure that it doesn't harm Ukyo."

The Kuno retainer raised an eyebrow, noting that Konatsu had dropped the Sama honorific, but didn't comment on it. "Lady Kodachi wishes for me to observe Ranma, and tell her what he is doing." He said. Seeing the other Ninja's look darken, he grimaced. "I know. I don't want to do it either." He then frowned, looking down at his black-slippered feet. "But, a retainer to the Kuno line has his duties."

The male Kunoichi nodded, and stopped in thought for a moment. "And if you reported to your mistress that a better Ninja than you was confounding your efforts?" He asked.

Sasuke bristled at being called inferior to the other, but he had to admit that he didn't stand much of a chance against someone who could fight Ranma or Ryoga to a stand-still. Then, he realized something, and smiled. "Well, then I could not bring any more information than I have already learned to the mistress, and it would be no fault of my own." He answered, quickly.

"Then Sasuke, I promise that whenever I see you spying on Ranma, I will stop you." Konatsu said, simply. "Is that understood?"

The black clad manservant nodded rapidly, and then put on a falsely angry expression. "I cannot believe that you would do that! Now all I can report to the mistress is the boy's general location!"

"I owe a debt to Saotome, and I will consider this my repayment." Konatsu responded, putting on an equally serious face.

"I understand…" Sasuke growled, before hopping off. Once he knew he was alone, he smiled lightly. He liked Ranma. Unlike some others who he had known in his life, the boy tried to be reasonably gentle when putting him down, and had even tried to help him re-enter his masters' good graces a time or two. Now, he could bring back a truly useless intelligence report with no loss of honor.

Dashing from roof to roof, the black clad man proceeded back to Nerima as quickly as he could. From a position one roof away from his and Konatsu's original confrontation point, Sailor Pluto blinked. She had come here when the gates had informed her that another turning point had been reached, only to see what looked like a battle between two random ninja. She recognized the one as Konatsu, but the other, she had no idea about. "This district is turning into a bad action movie." She muttered, before flipping her staff around in one hand, shrugging, and then teleporting away..

HR.

Neptune, Uranus and Rei waited in a clearing behind the Hikawa shrine for the other Senshi to show up. Apparently, the two outers had arrived slightly early. There was an uneasy silence between the three, until Rei finally broke it. "You… don't look like a guy." She said, not able to resist making the comment after getting a closer look at Neptune.

Oddly, it was Uranus who reacted, startled, to the comment. "What do you mean?" She asked curiously.

"Sailor Neptune." Rei answered, pointing at the redhead. "Ami said that she… he… was a guy, and had some sort of water based transformation." She smirked. "Then again, I've seen a few really good crossdressers in my time around here."

Neptune's eye twitched. "I'm not a crossdresser." She snapped, the term apparently being a sore subject to her. "The curse is a full change, 'n a doctor I know once told me it goes right down to the DNA, or somethin."

"Oh, I'm sorry for… Well, I'm sorry." Rei said, not having meant to be so blunt, or hit an apparently very touchy subject.

The group fell into silence again, until a bubbly looking blonde girl bounced in. "Hey, Rei, your grandfather said you'd be out he…" She stopped when she saw the two other Senshi who were sitting on tree stumps near the shrine maiden. "Oh, you guys came! Nice to meet you, I'm Minako."

She offered a hand to the two outer Senshi, and Neptune just stared at it blankly for a moment. When she saw Uranus reach out and shake it, she followed her example. "Nice to meet you." The two outers said.

"Yeah, I didn't think both of you would come." Minako exclaimed. "But it's so nice to meet a new Senshi. I mean, I was the last new one to join, and I never got to welcome anyone else, so…"

Rei slapped her forehead. "You know, you didn't have to tell them." She muttered, shaking her head slowly from side to side.

"Oh… Oops?" Minako said, looking sheepish. Still, she sat down next to the two new Senshi and began to talk their ears off, mostly about stuff that neither Ranma nor Haruka had any experience or interest in.

It was a bit of a blessing, then, when the rest of the Senshi trickled in. They were Ami, who Neptune gave an odd look, Usagi, who both outers recognized, and a black haired guy in a green suit jacket and black jeans. "Who's that guy, do ya think?" Neptune whispered, pointing at the only male in the area.

The blonde looked him over, then jumped in surprise. "Hey, I saw him before. He's the guy with the Tuxedo and the roses."

"Oh." Neptune said, not sure about roses, but vaguely recalling a man with a tux from the battle during the week. Even with her memory half shot by fear, seeing a guy jump into the middle of a demon battle with a cane as his only weapon was kind of memorable.

"So, Odango, you're here before someone else for once." Rei needled, causing the blonde haired girl known as sailor moon to pout at her.

"Rei, you can be so mean." She mumbled, then looked around to see who the black haired girl was talking about. "Oh, where is Makoto? She's usually one of the first here, isn't she?" She asked, worriedly.

"Well, she has to bring the cats this time." Ami said, then winced as she realized that Neptune was sitting nearby, and had flinched visibly. "Sorry." She said, apologetically.

"I… its fine." Neptune stuttered. "Just try 'n keep any 'o those little things outta here, all right?"

"Hmm, Luna's not going to like that." Usagi commented, just imagining the reaction of her guardian. She could almost feel the scratches already.

A few moments later, Rei looked around the clearing again. Neptune and Uranus were mostly keeping to themselves, while Usagi and Minako chatted with each other and Ami studied. Occasionally, she heard the two outers muttering things, but hadn't been able to make them out.

Just as she was about to suggest starting the meeting without Makoto or the two lunar cats, three new figures entered the clearing. All present looked around to see the Senshi of Lightning and two other people, both dressed in clothes they'd seen Makoto wear at one point or another, and had prominent crescent shaped markings on their foreheads. Even so, Minako made another mental note that Artemis was distractingly cute as a human, then slapped herself upside the head.

Usagi looked at the other blonde inner Senshi, confused. "Why'd you do that, Minako?" She asked.

"Oh, nothing." Minako muttered, before seizing the chance to change the subject. "So, everyone's here, let's get breaking!"

'Breaking?' Neptune thought, not even beginning to guess what the other girl meant, but agreed that they had spent enough time sitting around. "Okay, so what's goin on?" She asked, bluntly.

"Well," Usagi started. "first of all, we want to meet you guys. After all, it's not every day a new Senshi shows up, let alone two."

The two outers looked between each other for a moment, and Neptune shrugged. "Well, ya already know who I am if Ami's told ya, so I guess it won't hurt to introduce myself." She said, and then reached up to the stone on her chest, returning to civilian form in a flash of light. "Ranma, anything goes martial arts grand master."

Makoto started to grin widely at that pronouncement. One of the new Senshi being a martial arts grand master was a very good thing for her to hear, and she would have to see if the other girl would give her training. Then, it clicked. "Wait, I thought Ami said you were a guy? And what's your last name, anyways?"

Ranma sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Hmm, maybe I should get a paper written up 'ta explain all this?" She asked.

Uranus smirked. "Why not write a book? You'd probably sell a few copies." She joked, but Ranma just gave her an annoyed glare. The inners noticed this interaction, and Ami, Rei and Makoto filed it away to consider later. "Okay, for the short version, I've got a shape shifting Jusenkyo curse, 'n I was forced ta abandon my family name due to honor conflicts. I'll explain more later, okay?"

"As for me," Uranus said,, shrugging. "I'd rather keep that a secret for now, at least until we know a little more about you." The inners wanted to grumble about that comment, but decided against it for the moment. Knowing at least a bit about one of the two new Senshi would help them with the other, especially since it seemed that Ranma knew Uranus well.

"Jusenkyo?!" One of the people who had followed Makoto into the clearing, the one with black hair, asked. "Is that how you changed us?"

"Changed you?" Ranma asked, looking at her oddly.

"Yes, Artemis and I are the Senshi's advisers. We used to bare the form of small cats." She noticed that Ranma had started backing up, falling off of the back of her log the second she mentioned that. "Are you all right?" She asked, astonished at the very real look of fear on the redhead's face.

Uranus wanted to know the same thing, leaning over to examine her partner carefully. "I'm fine." Ranma muttered, clambering back onto her seat. "Sorry, I'm just real jumpy about… those things." Then, she went over what had been said so far. "Wait, ya said I somehow gave ya Jusenkyo curses? How?"

The white haired man, Artemis, butted in at this point. "By blasting us with a stream of water." He growled, giving Ranma an annoyed glare.

"Artemis." Luna said, as she saw that Ranma was looking distinctly nervous at the look. "You know, if she is so jumpy around us, it could become a problem in the future." She frowned, considering. "Would you allow me to attempt to cure you of your fear of cats?"

"You could do that?" Ranma asked, all thought of her somehow projecting Jusenkyo seeming to fly out of her head for a moment, and for quite good reason. The battle she'd taken part in at the old mansion had told her just how much the Neko-ken could incapacitate her in a fight, especially if she didn't want to, or couldn't, let it loose. Still, she wasn't sure. "How?"

"Well," Luna explained. "Artemis and I, or rather our race in general, has the ability to enter other beings' minds. We used it to help awaken the Inner Senshi, and it's possible that I may be able to use it to fix this problem you have with cats."

"You're going to rummage around inside her mind?" Uranus asked, her eyes narrowing. I don't like that idea much."

Luna scowled at her. "I assure you that Mau are strictly forbidden from causing damage when performing this technique. It's rather like a human doctor's Hippocratic oath." She sniffed, apparently mortally offended that Uranus could suggest such a thing. "Besides, I want to be able to become a normal Mau again and live with Usagi." She looked down at her human hands and opened and closed them. Something about that statement felt wrong to her, as if she was forgetting something, but she couldn't remember what.

Ranma looked at Uranus, and the other shrugged. "It's your mind, your call I guess." She said. "I understand why you'd want to get rid of that problem with cats."

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, do it." She said. "If these guys're supposed ta be c… those things all the time, 'n if whatever I accidentally did ever wears off," She gulped.

Luna nodded and stepped forward, being watched constantly by Uranus. To tell the truth, this made her very nervous, especially since she actually wasn't sure if her mental abilities still worked. Even so, she knelt in front of the blue eyed redhead sitting on the tree stump, and focused on her eyes. Almost immediately, the golden mark on her head started to glow. The two went completely still for a frightening few moments, and Uranus started to move forward to try and break the link.

To her surprise, she saw that the white haired Mau, or whatever they were called, was moving to do the same. Suddenly, the two burst into motion again. Ranma just blinked, then rubbed her head in pain. "Ouch, that wasn't fun…" She mumbled.

Luna's reaction was… different. Abruptly, the human shaped moon cat pitched forward, scrambled ahead on all fours, and began emptying her stomach into the bushes. "Luna, are you all right?" The white haired Mau asked, concerned, and moved to clasp the other's shoulder.

Luna didn't answer, merely continuing to shudder. After a few minutes, she croaked something out. "I'm… Never… going in there again."

"Guess that means it didn't work?" Ranma asked, looking slightly guilty at the sight of the woman who had been violently sick after trying to read her mind.

Luna shook her head. "There are things locked behind a block in your mind, that…" She shuddered. "A six year old boy can generate an astounding amount of fear." She finished, simply.

"Six?" Usagi asked, blinking. "What happened when she… he… when Ranma was six?"

Luna simply shook her head, and Ranma shrugged. "That's when I was trained in the Neko-ken." She quietly added, "Really don't wanna talk about it."

The group fell into a rather uncomfortable silence, and Usagi winced. She was pretty sure that she didn't want to know what this Neko-ken was anymore, especially if it would give Luna such reactions. "So," she said, forcefully changing the subject. "What about Luna and Artemis's curses?"

Ranma shrugged. "I've got no idea." She admitted.

Several of the Senshi face-faulted at the frank statement, other than Uranus who mostly expected it.

"What do you mean you have no idea? You threw around magic like that and you have no idea how you did it?!" Rei asked, incredulously.

"Look, if I'da known how ta control Jusenkyo, I woulda used it ta cure my curse long ago." Ranma frowned. "And, o'course, now that I know it could be possible, I CAN'T cure my curse. Hell, I can't even remember what I did I was so out of it at the time."

Luna and Artemis both let their heads fall in disappointment, and Ranma noticed. "Look, I'm sorry. I know what a pain Jusenkyo is, even if ya really are… those things." She shuddered. "I'll try 'n figure somethin out, okay?"

"I suppose that's all we can ask." Ami contributed.

Just as Artemis was about to object to that, the group heard someone yelling from the house. "Rei! Hino-san wants you back inside to finish your chores up and he won't let me do them this time!"

Rei winced. "Sorry guys, but it looks like this meeting's over, especially since I can't disguise it as a study session."

Usagi sighed. "Great, and we still have so much to talk about." She muttered, then perked up. "You two can come again! We can get Ami to arrange it!" She said, happily.

The aforementioned blue haired girl threw a look at her leader that was almost, but not quite, annoyed, before nodding reluctantly.

"Fine, we'll be back 'n I'll try and figure out this Jusenkyo thing in the meantime." Ranma replied. The Senshi disbanded quickly after that, especially since they could hear Yuuichiro blundering through the forest towards them, looking for Rei.

HR.

A short time later, Ranma and Haruka were walking home, talking about the meeting. "I just can't believe that they're all kids." Ranma grumbled to herself, annoyed.

"They're only three years younger than us, at most." Haruka shot back, looking at the redhead oddly.

"That Makoto walked like she knew some martial arts, but the others… Minako has some experience, I think, even if she acts kinda flakey, but Usagi and Ami…" She frowned. "All 'o them are normal junior high girls, is all. Doesn't really seem fair."

Haruka nodded. "Yeah, but these powers seem to have been based on reincarnation, or something, right? There probably wasn't any choice on who to pick." She smirked. "Otherwise, they wouldn't have picked me or you for the job."

Ranma laughed. "Yeah, I think some Kami up there thought that was a great joke."

Haruka joined in for a moment, then stopped, thinking of something. "There's something you said, though…" Seeing Ranma's curious look, she continued. "You said you couldn't cure your curse now, what did you mean by that?"

Ranma stopped for a moment and thought. Then, she shrugged. "It's a combination of a couple of things, I guess." She finally answered. "I mean, you wouldn't like it if I got rid of it, would ya?"

Haruka looked at her, astonished. "That's not the reason, is it?" She was conflicted as she said it. Yes, it was true that she may have her reservations if Ranma's curse were to vanish, but she liked to think more of herself than to think that she'd abandon him. Also, she knew that Jusenkyo had caused the smaller redhead no end of trouble, and thought that keeping it just for her was a pretty stupid reason.

Seeing the look on her Fiancee's face, Ranma grinned and grabbed her arm. "Hey, I wouldn't look good in the sailor suit as a guy either, ya know." Seeing the redhead's self-depreciating grin, Haruka couldn't help pulling up the mental image and starting to giggle herself.

END.

Okay, there it was and hope you enjoyed. Now, on to the stupidity.

OMAKE! OMAKE! OMAKE!

After knocking on the shrine's front door, the two outer Senshi waited for a few moments, wondering if anyone was going to answer it as time went on, until it finally opened to reveal an old preast.

The man looked the two fuku clad magical girls over for a moment, and before either could say anything, turned around. "Rei! Some of your friends are here!" He called. Turning back, he bowed towards the Senshi. "My grand-daughter will be out to see you in a moment." He said, then smiled. "I don't suppose you two would like to work as shrine maidens?"

End Omake.

Ami:Yep, that was pretty stupid.

Misato:Do you have any idea how much that would have mucked up the plotline?

Weebee:But it would have been funny!

Misato(Smacks him in the back of the head,) Ah, just get back to work.

Weebee:Ow, yes, Ma'am. (Winces) She's so mean to me…. Anyhow, see you guys later, and don't forget to review.


	43. Chapter 43, Car Trouble, Part 1

Hello again, folks, and welcome to fantasy.. oh, wait, wrong script... right... Just FYI, to answer what about 3/4ths of my reviews last chapter were asking...

Yes, stargate will be in this fanfic in future, and possibly in a more major way. No, it will not be soon. Please note that Shampoo's subplot has been growing since the beginning of the story, and she hasn't shown up yet. Stargate's role in the scheme of things comes much, much later.

And now, shutting up. On with the show!

Chapter 43, Car Trouble, Part 1.

Haruka Tenoh sat perfectly still on the ground, deep in concentration. She wasn't concentrating on anything in particular. Actually, quite the opposite, she was concentrating on not concentrating on anything specific, as Ranma had put it,

Feeling a slight tickling sensation in the bridge of her nose, she did her best to ignore it. As she continued to sit, eyes closed, and the sensation returned, she crinkled her nose to try and get rid of it, her concentration even more impaired by the sound of Ranma snickering from nearby.

She held herself back for just over 40 seconds, but finally, with explosive relief, she sneezed, her eyes flying open. Nearby, where he was practicing his Kata, she could see Ranma laughing quietly. "It's not funny." She grumbled. "You've had to do this all your life, you know how hard it is."

Ranma stopped laughing, then shook his head. "Actually, I haven't." He replied, simply.

Haruka blinked. "What do you mean by that?" She asked, sounding almost angry.

"I'm actually pretty much guessing what ya have ta do to sense yer Chi." Ranma said, off-hand.

Haruka's response was instant, as she face faulted, ruining her perfect meditative stance. "What? So, you don't know if this is going to work and you've had me doing it for over an hour and a half?!" She yelled, indignantly.

"Well, um, it's not quite like that…" Ranma said, getting a look from his blonde fiancée that clearly demanded an explanation. Sighing, he walked over to the spot in Setsuna's back yard where she was sitting, kneeling down next to her. "You know what gravity is, right?" He asked, the stupidity of the question causing Haruka to blink.

"I… what? Of course I know what gravity is." She said, indignantly. "Now are you going to keep asking me stupid questions or are you going to explain?"

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, I'm explainin." He said, sounding almost hurt. "Well, as a kid, I didn't. Didn't know much about the laws of physics at all, really, 'cept for stuff about angles and reflection, 'cuz the old man thought it would be useful to the art." Seeing her impatient look, he continued. "Reason I mention it is because it made it so I didn't really know what was impossible."

She blinked.

"Ya know that jumpin up to a rooftop is impossible for a normal person, right? Yer weight's too big for your muscles to push that high, even if yer a kid… but I didn't, so I kept tryin ta do it, 'n I figured that if the old man told me I could do it, I could." He shrugged. "So, I sorta forced myself ta start usin Chi without knowin I was usin' it." He smirked. "Unfortunately, ya aren't as stupid as I was, so ya gotta do it the hard way."

Haruka wanted to complain, but at the same time was rather glad she hadn't gone through Ranma's upbringing. She was about to say something, when someone else spoke up.

"That was a very interesting explanation, Ranma-san… but do you expect me to believe that you can jump to a second story roof?"

Haruka spun to the back door, seeing an older woman standing there. "Mom?" She asked, shocked. "How long have you been here?"

Her mother just smiled. "Long enough to see you being quiet and completely still for more than ten minutes." She looked at Ranma. "Now that's quite a feet."

Haruka grumbled at her, annoyed, while Ranma shrugged. "Part 'o the training." He answered, then narrowed his eyes. "And ya don't think I can roof hop?"

"Ranma, don't!" Haruka exclaimed, jumping to her feet, as her mother shook her head. She'd seen that the boy was starting towards the older woman, and she didn't want her to have a heart attack.

"Okay." He said, with an evil grin, before dashing over, grabbing Haruka as she tried to dodge, and leaping upward.

"Hey, you idiot, I'm trying not to destroy mom's sense of reality, then you do stuff like this?" The blonde complained, as the two landed on the small overhang above the back door. He merely looked sheepish, and she eventually laughed at the expression.

"Yes…. Well…" The older Blonde said, looking somewhat shaken from where she stood below the two. "I, that was... interesting, but I came here to talk to you, Haruka."

"Oh, um, sure Mom." Her daughter said, then leapt from the overhang, taking the shock of landing easily. Mrs. Tenoh briefly thought of commenting on that, but shook the idea off as the three headed into the house.

HR.

"So, what was it you wanted to talk to us about?" Haruka asked, as she, her mother and Ranma all sat around the kitchen table. Nodoka was out somewhere at the moment, and Setsuna was working in her room, so they had the place pretty much to themselves.

Her mother didn't comment for a moment, studying the mess of scrolls and papers that the table had become, several school books on one side. Drawing her attention away from several pages that were written in what almost looked like Chinese, she returned her look to her daughter. "Your father and I have been talking…" She started, causing Haruka to gulp nervously.

"Don't worry, dear, it's not that bad." She reassured, quickly. "We wanted to know if the two of you would like to go to a tea house with us in a week, when your father returns to Japan from his trip."

Ranma and Haruka looked at each other for a moment, before the girl looked at her mother oddly. "That'd be great, I guess, but… why?: She asked, unsure of any other way of saying it.

Her mother smiled at her. "We want to get to know Ranma better, for one." She said, nodding at the black haired boy. Looking at Haruka, she spoke again. "Plus, I miss seeing you at home sometimes." She admitted.

Haruka looked embarrassed for a moment, but nodded. "Yeah, mom, that'd be great." She finally said, somewhat uncertainly.

HR.

About half an hour later, Haruka waved to her departing mother and closed the door, sighing. Ranma looked at her oddly. "Somethin' wrong?" He asked.

She shrugged, still looking out. "No, not really." She answered. "Mom's just acting… a lot more friendly than I'm used to, that's all."

"That's a good thing, right?" The pigtailed boy asked, confused.

Haruka shrugged. "I'm not sure, to be honest. I mean, I love my mom, but this new attitude of hers, it just makes me a little nervous."

"She makes you nervous because she's being nice?" Ranma asked, looking at her oddly.

"I know, it's weird…" She trailed off. "Don't worry about it. Let's go get something for supper, all right?"

Ranma nodded, letting Haruka's earlier comments leave his mind temporarily as he headed for the kitchen.

HR.

The next afternoon, Ranma walked into the Peaking duck, his school bag slung over one shoulder. "Hey, Mousse." He greeted, noting that the blind boy was at the counter, talking to a brown haired girl with a ponytail. Studying her for a moment, he recognized her. "Hey, Makoto." He continued, surprised.

"Oh, Hello Ranma." Mousse said, looking to the door. "You know Kino-san?"

Ranma shrugged. "Met her a couple times."

"Oh, um, I didn't know you two knew each other…" Makoto said, slightly nervously.

"Yeah, we've been martial arts sparring partners for a long time." Ranma said. "Mousse is pretty good for a blind guy."

"Hey!" The duck cursed martial artist scowled, flicking out a hand to toss a small staff at Ranma. He just chuckled, reaching out and catching it in his right hand.

"Sorry, Mousse, only the ol' ghoul can get me with tha… Ow!" Ranma exclaimed, rubbing the top of his head where Cologne's staff had impacted. "So, she's in there?"

Mousse nodded, trying not to laugh. "Says you're late." He replied.

"Thanks." Ranma said, still rubbing his head and walking behind the counter, through the door and into the kitchen. Once she had heard him talking with someone back there, and a door opening and closing, Makoto got up the courage to ask something. "Um, Mousse, why is Ranma visiting that woman who works as a waitress here?"

Mousse shook his head. "I don't know. There's some sort of attack he's trying to learn. It's a pretty important one, too." Then, he frowned. "Why?" He didn't know why, but having Makoto become so interested in Ranma annoyed him for some reason.

"It's not important." The girl said, laughing it off. "Can I get another bowl of Ramen?"

Mousse smiled. "Sure thing, coming up!"

HR.

Elder Cologne sat on her staff, pondering. "You shot a blast of Jusenkyo magic, you say?" She asked, looking over the boy in front of her for a moment. "It has little to do with the Chi focusing you need to do in order to see a heart crystal, but it would definitely be a good ability to have."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinkin." Ranma admitted. "But I've tried ta figure out how ta do it a few times over the last couple days. Unfortunately," He looked down, embarrassed. "I really don't know that much about magic."

Cologne nodded. "Indeed." She said. "Would you be willing to show me this 'Deep Submerge' attack you told me about?"

Ranma nodded, producing his transformation pendant from a pocket and transforming in a process that Cologne still found fascinating, before loosing a ball of water at the nearest wall. Standing down from her attack stance, Neptune looked at Cologne. "So, what do ya think?"

"Hmm…" The elder said, hopping over to the wall where the water had hit and studying it. She waited there for several minutes, poking at the few bits of moisture still visible, before speaking. "I don't know."

"Great, ya spend 3 minutes starin at a wall while I watch and ya have no idea?" Neptune grumbled.

"I didn't say I have no idea, girl." Cologne said, annoyed. "I said I don't know." Neptune was about to open her mouth, when Cologne's upraised hand stopped her. "My only theory is that, since both are water based, your Senshi magic and the Jusenkyo magic are both used during your attack. That being said, the amount of Jusenkyo magic being used would likely be very small." She shook her head. "I have no idea how it could do that to those advisers you were telling me about."

"Great." Neptune said. "So ya don't know how I can fix 'em?"

"The only thing I could suggest would be trying to will a certain curse into water you create… but I certainly wouldn't want to be the one you tested it on." Cologne cackled, but stopped when she saw that Neptune wasn't laughing. "I'm sorry that I can't be of any more help."

"Nah, it's fine." Neptune said, shrugging. "Shouldn't expect ya ta know everything."

"Just almost everything." Cologne returned, with a snort.

HR.

Haruka whistled to herself as she walked down the street in the middle of Juuban's shopping district, still wearing her male infinity academy uniform. School had ended an hour earlier, and she was looking for something to kill time with while Ranma studied with Cologne at the Peaking duck. She'd tried to sit in on one of their sessions once, but the martial arts jargon going around had generally confused the heck out of her, so she usually didn't bother with it.

Looking at the store fronts as she passed, she noticed one named the "Crown game center." She knew that Ranma's friend Kasumi worked there, but had never really checked the place out herself. Shrugging, she pushed her way through the front door, taking a look around.

The first floor of the building was a typical video arcade, cabinets and control platforms lined up along the walls, with a rather bored looking young man standing at a counter in the back where change was given out. The place was mostly empty, save for two girls who were clustered around one of the racing machines.

She was about to pass over them, when she realized that they looked familiar. Getting slightly closer, she recognized them as Usagi and Minako, and the latter was saying something. "Yeah, I beat you again, Usagi! Guess I'm number 1 at racing."

"Aw, come on Minako, I'll get you next time!" Usagi pouted, glaring at her friend.

"Nope, No one can stop me. I'm "Aino Minako, racing queen!"" The blonde with the bow in her hair giggled.

Haruka smiled slightly, then cleared her throat. From the one with the twin ponytails, she thought she heard something like "What a hunk," but ignored it. "Hmm, racing queen, eh?" She asked, quietly. "Care to test that against me?" She didn't know why she was doing it. Maybe Ranma's attitude towards being the best had rubbed off on her, or maybe she was just that bored, since her car had blown a gasket on Monday, but it really wasn't important.

"Y…Yeah, I'm the best." Minako said, not quite as certain as before. "I'll play against you!"

Haruka smirked, gesturing for Usagi to move out of one of the two plastic seats in front of the racing cabinets. She immediately did so, and the older blonde sat, acquainting herself with the setup. She'd played this game before, several years ago, but most other ones were the same so she was relatively confident. "You ready?" She asked.

"Mmhmm." Minako said, producing a quarter from her pocket.

Behind them, Usagi watched as the starting countdown came to an end and Minako shot from the starting line. To her confusion, the odd boy in the other seat merely sat back, relaxing. "Um… aren't you going to go?" She asked, almost concerned.

Haruka didn't answer, just sparing a few seconds with her eyes away from the game to give her a reassuring smile. As Minako lapped the other player's car, Haruka gripped the wheel, pushing the peddle down and shifting the digital vehicle into gear. Usagi's mouth steadily fell open as the second car took the turns incredibly tightly, speeding through the straight aways.

Within 30 seconds, Haruka had made up for Minako's lapping her, and the two were both on the third and final lap. For a second, Minako thought she was going to make it to the finish before Haruka could catch her again, but was disappointed as the blonde's yellow car streaked past her.

"Gah!" She growled, letting her face slam into the steering wheel.

"Hey, don't take it too badly." Haruka said, reaching a hand over and patting the younger girl on the shoulder. "You were pretty good. Just keep on trying, and you could end up the cutest driver on the F1 circuit."

"Wow, thanks!" Minako said, instantly switching from depressed and annoyed to happy.

"Hey, Haruka. Been picking on novices?" Came a familiar voice, causing the three to turn to the arcade's front door. Much to their surprise, they saw Ranma, in his cursed form, walking towards them.

"Just a friendly game." Haruka replied, casually. "You're done with your training?"

Ranma shrugged. "Yeah, but I'm starving." She muttered, her stomach growling, before she noticed Usagi and Minako. The blush on the latter's face made her raise an eyebrow slightly.

"Well, we could head upstairs and get something to eat, then I have to go pick my car up from the shop." Haruka offered.

Ranma nodded, and the two headed towards the back of the building, leaving Usagi and Minako to look oddly at each other. "Hmm, how do you think he knows Ranma?" The odango-haired girl asked.

"I really don't care. At least it wasn't some actual girl, he's still free!" Minako cackled.

"Hey, what do you mean he's free?" Usagi asked, annoyed. "I saw him too, you know."

"And what about Mamoru, what's he, chopped bread?" Minako reminded, with a nudge.

"Oh, right, Mamoru…" Usagi said, laughing nervously.

After a short silence, Minako spoke up. "So, wanna spy on him?"

"Mmhmm." Usagi replied.

HR.

A few minutes later on the second floor of the crown, Haruka noted that Ranma was poking at her food rather slowly, and shooting worried glances towards her. Sighing, she spoke up. "Okay, what's wrong?" She asked.

"It's nothin'" Ranma replied, quickly.

"Right, and you always eat that slowly." The blonde replied, exasperated. "What happened?"

"It's stupid." Ranma said, but at a steady look from her Fiancée, she sighed. "I… I was just thinkin, down stairs, Minako was kinda blushin and, um…" She trailed off, grumbling incoherently.

Haruka looked confused for a moment, then something seemed to click. "Wait, you think…" She said, slowly. "Yeash, the least you could have done was get annoyed at me for it."

"Huh?" Ranma asked.

"Ranma, it was just harmless flirting. They hadn't figured out about me yet, and it makes some girls feel good to have a guy talk to them nicely." Haruka shrugged. "I didn't realize it would bother you, I guess because you've never seen me do it since we were usually on dates when out in public together."

Ranma looked back at her, surprised. "So, um, ya weren't serious?"

"Of course I wasn't!" Haruka exclaimed, then tone her voice down. "Well, yeah, they were cute. I mean, you could see that."

Ranma nodded.

"But they're three years younger than us, and I've already got someone." Haruka continued. "So don't worry about it, all right?"

HR.

Several seats away, Usagi and Minako's eyes were as large as saucers. "Did you hear that?" Usagi squeaked.

"Yeah, he thinks I'm cute…" Minako sighed.

"No, not that, he said he and Ranma are together!" Usagi exclaimed.

"Wait, but isn't Ranma really…" Minako said, then blinked. "No, please, don't tell me a boy that cute is gay, please!" She started crying, but Usagi quickly moved a hand over her mouth.

"Do you want to get us caught?" She hissed, annoyed.

"Oh, right." Minako said, gulping. "Wait, I know, Ranma must not have told him! He thinks Ranma's really a girl. If I tell him about the curse, then Ranma will be out of the running."

"Minako, that's kind of… underhanded, isn't it?" Usagi asked, but sighed as she saw that her best friend was cackling a little bit manically. "Great, she's gone again."

HR.

About twenty minutes later, Usagi and Minako hid behind the corner of an auto-shop, as Ranma and Haruka walked down the street towards it. "Hey, I thought yer mechanic was at the track?" Ranma asked.

"Yeah, but after that monster attack he hasn't really been feeling too well." Haruka shook her head. "Took a month long leave, and I can't really say I blame him."

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, havin yer heart crystal stolen then bein chucked into a locker can't be all that fun." She said, lapsing into thought. A few seconds later, she snapped her fingers. "Oh, right. Nodoka told me ta go get some milk. I'll meet ya back here when you get yer car, okay?"

"Sure." Haruka replied, entering the garage and waving to the mechanic. "Hey, Kameda-san, how's my car?"

From their hiding place, Minako smiled as Usagi looked at her oddly. "All right, now's my chance." She said, gleefully, as she stepped out and walked towards the garage's entrance. "Ranma's not around anymore."

"Hey, wait! Minako, this isn't a good idea!" Usagi whined, as she quickly ran after the other girl.

As Haruka and the Mechanic made small talk, the two crept up next to the door. Taking a deep breath, Minako stepped out from around the door's edge. "H-hello, Haruka-san." She said, her determination decreasing slightly.

"Hey, it's the formula 1 girl from the arcade. Minako, right?" Haruka asked, then winced as she remembered that she wasn't supposed to know the other girl's name in her civilian identity.

Fortunately for her, Minako didn't seem to notice. "Yes, that's right." She said. "I just wanted to ask you… how long have you been with Ranma?"

Haruka looked at her rather strangely. "Hmm, you know you just let it slip that you were following us." She said, calmly.

"I… oh…" Minako said, blushing, as Usagi sweat dropped. "Well?" she finally said, trying to divert attention away from that.

Haruka thought for a moment. "I'd say a little over a month and a half, why?"

"But, you don't know about her secret." Minako said, in a hushed tone.

"Secret?" Haruka asked, honestly curious. She knew that Ranma didn't really know most of the Sailor Senshi, but was it possible that one of them had actually found something out about him that she hadn't? "What secret is that?"

"Well, it's that…" Minako said, then leaned closer to whisper. She wanted to steal Ranma's boyfriend, after all, not blow the secret to everyone in the area. "She's actually a guy."

Much to Minako's surprise, Haruka didn't react with shock. Nor did she react with laughter, which was the younger blonde's second expectation. "And…" She said, waiting.

Minako was about to reply, when the mechanic wheeled himself out from under the car on a small cart. "All right Haruka, that should get it running again!" He said. "Just let me test the ignition."

"Hey, thanks Kameda-san." Haruka said, smiling, as Minako's mouth opened and closed several times.

Just as the girl with the bow in her hair was about to let out an astonished outburst, the blaring of the car's horn cut her off. The three turned almost instantly to see the car glowing with a red light, the mechanic screaming in fright as it reformed before his eyes. "Oh man, my car!" Haruka moaned, as her pride and joy proceeded to morph into a Daimon.

END.

Author error theater 3000!

Yes, I know that the car in this chapter was blue in the episode, and described as Haruka's, which means all of my description of the vehicle as a yellow sports car was wrong. My explanation? No, of course I didn't just 'forget,' don't be rediculous! It was, um, erm... damn, i've got nothing.

Look, it's Ryoga, and he's flying!

(Running feet sounds.)


	44. Chapter 44, Car Trouble, Part 2

(Loud claning sounds are heard, before an Evangelion Unit stomps onto a void black screen. Misato can be seen , just barely, standing on its shoulder.)

Misato(Through a megaphone): Now, who's the one who said they were going to take away my beer? I'll have you know I deserve that beer just for working with this guy so long! He's giving me wrinkles, I tell you!

Shinji(Through EVA's speakers): Um, Misato, what are we going to do when we find this person?

Misato: We're going to step on them, of course!

Shinji(Offended): I am not stepping on some random civilian with my EVA.

Misato: Hmm, well, it seems my hired help is rebelling. In the meantime, watch this so you don't see me coming.

Chapter 44, Car Trouble, Part 2.

"Oh man, my car!" Haruka exclaimed, the red light fading away from what had formerly been said vehicle, and now was a gold and black female demon, the car's suspension forming her back with the wheels set to either side of her arms and legs.

Before any of the Senshi could move, the thing had shot its tires out on long shafts, capturing Kameda's arms and legs with ease. "Hey, you let him go!" Usagi said, indignantly, charging forward to try and free the man, closely followed by Minako.

After seeing the two of them crash into a painful heap, caused by some form of oil slick the Daimon had formed on the floor as it moved, Haruka moved over to assist them instead of trying to attack it in her civilian form, pulling Usagi to her feet. "Are you all right?" She asked, worriedly.

"I'm fine." Usagi said, helping Minako to her feet as the Daimon's chest, where the car's windshield covered its breasts, began to glow with an odd black light. "Crap, it's removing the heart crystal." Haruka muttered, getting a surprised look from the other two.

"How do you know about that?" Minako asked.

"No time to explain." Haruka snapped. "Transform!" She looked around quickly, seeing that the three were hidden from view by the walls of the garage, before recovering her henshin pen from one jacket pocket and holding the thing high. 'So much for keeping my identity secret.' She thought, and then called out her transformation phrase. "Uranus planet power, make up!"

As the light cleared from around the Senshi of wind, She noticed that Minako was gaping at her, though Usagi had already withdrawn her transformation broach and was holding it up. "Y… you're Sailor Uranus?" The bow wearing blonde stuttered, shocked.

"We've got to hurry." Uranus exclaimed, and was quickly proven right as the Daimon had finished admiring the heart crystal, and had fallen onto its wheels. With an almost humorous call of "Vroom!" the thing started to tear out of the building.

"Oh no you don't!" Uranus exclaimed, running after the thing as quickly as she could. Holding up one hand as she went, she felt it fill with golden energy, and let it slam down onto the ground. "World shaking!"

Unfortunately for her, the attack missed, and the Daimon kept on driving, taking a tight turn onto two wheels as it entered the street. Cursing, she began to run after it and fervently wished that she'd remembered to bring her bike today.

Behind her, Sailor Moon began to run as well, but was surprised when she saw that Minako was still standing there. "Come on, we've got to go!" She called, surprised that she was being the responsible one for once.

Minako nodded, after one last mournful mutter of "But… she was such a hunk…" and withdrew her transformation pendant from a dimensional pocket.

HR.

A couple of blocks away, Ranma was walking on the top of a fenced off, empty canal, carrying the milk she'd been asked to pick up, when she heard a strange sound in the distance. It was approaching rapidly, and she could have sworn that it sounded like a woman yelling "Vroom Vroom!" at the top of her voice.

She strained her eyes to see where the noise was coming from, then they widened quite a bit when she saw the thing that was tearing towards her along the bottom of the canal. Thinking quickly, she dropped the milk, wincing at what Nodoka would likely have to say about that later, and cupped her hands. "Moko-Takabisha!" She called out, launching the bolt into the pavement at the center of the trench of concrete. Instantly, a pretty decent sized crater was blown in the surface, and she leapt to the other side of it.

Taking a quick scan around to ensure that the lip of the canal was obscuring her from the view of others, the redhead dug out her transformation pen for the second time that day. Only seconds after the column of water had receded from Neptune's body, the Daimon was on her, desperately trying to avoid the massive crater it had found in its path.

Unfortunately for it, it couldn't turn quite quickly enough, and ended up being flipped through the air in order to land on its front. "Oow, did someone get the number of that truck?" It moaned, hauling itself to its feet.

"That'd be me." Neptune smirked, falling into a stance and preparing to fight.

"Neptune, that thing's mine!" Came an angry female voice, as the redhead saw her blonde companion churning up the canal bed that the Daimon had formerly traveled down, murder in her eyes.

"Uranus, what'd it do? You all right?" Neptune asked, worriedly.

"I'm fine." Uranus said, screeching to a stop next to her partner and actually puffing from the exertion of the speed at which she had run. "They went and turned my car into one of those things!" She cried, angrily.

"Hmm, it does look kinda familiar." Neptune pondered, then winced. "But we've gotta destroy it, it's got a heart crystal."

"I know." Uranus growled, bringing her hand down to the ground and crying out her attack name again, sending a ball of energy hurtling through the earth to impact her enemy. Much to her surprise, however, the Daimon jumped into the air, using its two rear wheels to keep above the blast.

"Oh, you're way off!" It gloated. "And even with this slight roadblock, I will return this heart crystal to my master!"

"Don't… be…. So sure.. of that…!" Came a very out of breath sounding voice, causing the two Senshi and the Daimon to look up to the side of the Canal, only to see sailors Moon and Venus standing there, though the latter of the two was looking a little the worse for the wear. Beside them was a bike with a basket that they'd obviously confiscated off of someone.

"That's right!" Moon exclaimed, taking up a pose. "Because I don't like things like you harassing hard working auto-mechanics, and in the name of the moon, I will punish you!" At the end of her speech, her pose had changed so that her left arm was crossed in front of her chest, and her right was pointing over it at the Daimon.

The creature shared an extremely confused look with Uranus and Neptune, who both blinked for a moment, before the red haired Senshi spoke. "Hey, ya wouldn't know a guy named Kuno, would ya?"

Moon just blinked, confused, before shaking that state off. "Never mind, let's beat this thing!"

"Right." Venus said, and Uranus and Neptune reluctantly nodded. As if that had been some sort of unspoken signal for the resumption of hostilities, the Daimon swung one of its tires around to knock the two inner Senshi off of their high perch.

They dodged, but still ended up sliding down the steep wall of the canal, and the Daimon was just about to attack them again when Neptune's deep submerge hit it in the back. Grunting, it turned again, trying to hit this new annoyance, but she nimbly jumped out of the way.

Finding herself on the opposite side of the thing from Uranus, she gave the blonde a nod, to which the Senshi of wind responded instantly by slamming her fist into the ground. "World Shaking!" She cried, just before Neptune's own cry of "Deep Submerge!" resounded again. Slightly late on the draw, Venus's crescent beam joined the other two attacks, knocking the Daimon backwards and to the ground.

It sat there, knocked onto its back for a few seconds and blinking at the sky, when Venus looked to Moon. "Do it, now!" She exclaimed.

Moon didn't reply directly, her heart rod materializing in her hands as she began the long and complex dance that unleashed the moon spiral heart attack. Neptune and Uranus kept an eye on the Daimon to ensure that it wouldn't move during the preparation time, and then the attack was let loose, the giant pink heart enveloping the monstrosity and turning it back into a very beaten up yellow sports car, a heart crystal glittering on its driver's seat.

"Oh, no…" Uranus cried, noting that the vehicle looked extremely banged up, its doors covered in dents and a large hole from what looked like Venus's crescent beam carved through its engine block. Neptune was about to comfort her partner, when she heard Sailor Moon speak.

"Hey, we'd better get this back to its owner!" The odangoed blonde exclaimed, picking up the heart crystal.

Neptune cursed, having forgotten her duty. "Sailor Moon, I'll need to see that first." She said, quietly.

"What?" Moon asked, confused. "But the crystal's owner needs it back as soon as possible."

Neptune nodded. "Which is why I'm gunna need ya to hand it over now, so I don't have to take it." If Uranus hadn't been distracted at the time with her own concerns, she would have tried to cover for her partner's lack of tact, but she was busy at the moment.

"But I…" Usagi said, uncertain. Neptune didn't wait for her decision, walking forward and plucking the crystal from her hand.

Studying it carefully for several seconds as the Senshi of the moon and Venus looked on, she sighed in relief. "It's not the one."

Uranus, who had recovered just a little in the meantime, walked up next to her and nodded. "That's good, Kameda's a good kid, and I wouldn't want him ta be the one. We should get this back to him."

Neptune nodded, and the two started to turn away, when Moon called after them. "Wait just a minute!"

"What is it?" The redhead asked, slightly impatient.

"We're going with you." Moon said.

"Yeah." Venus continued. "For one, I think we should know why you two were so eager to get a look at that heart crystal! …and for another, you're going to tell me why that cute guy's another Senshi!"

At that moment, there wasn't a Senshi in the canal who wasn't sweat dropping, save for Venus.

"Let's just go." Neptune sighed, resigned.

HR.

Half an hour later, Ranma, Haruka, Usagi and Minako were all sitting around a secluded back table in the crown's fruit parlor. Kameda's heart crystal had been returned to his body with little incident, but the two inner Senshi had been true to their words that they wanted explanations, and had refused to leave the outers alone. "All right." Ranma said. "But yer probably not gunna want ta hear what we have to say."

Minako nodded. "Yeah, so about Haruka, is he a shape shifter like you, Ranma, or what?" Even Usagi looked annoyed at her friend's persistent questioning, and the older blonde tried to stifle a chuckle.

"That one's easy." Haruka answered. "I'm a girl who dresses like a boy, both because I usually find it more comfortable and so that I can race."

"You're right." Minako moaned. "I don't like it all ready. Why do all the cute boys have to be demons, evil tree people, already taken, or really girls?!"

"This happen to you guys a lot?" Ranma asked, off-handedly.

Usagi nodded. "Yeah, pretty often." She said, just as casually. "Of course, I've got Mamoru so I don't really mind."

"That's not what you were saying ear-Ow!" Minako cried, having her foot stepped on by her friend.

"Can we start on the other question now?" Usagi asked, both to change the subject and because she honestly wanted, and likely needed, to know.

The slightly cheerful air of the last few minutes of conversation drained from around the group, and Ranma and Haruka looked between each other. "Should we tell them the truth?" The blonde asked.

Ranma shrugged. "Well, I'm usually pretty bad at lying." She returned.

"Okay, to make things short, we need to check certain people's heart crystals for special items. Both we and the enemies that are currently attacking people are looking for them, and if they find them before we do the world is pretty much toast." Haruka rattled off. From the way she'd said it, it seemed like she'd already practiced the explanation, and Ranma gave her an odd look.

"So…" Usagi said, confused. "Why didn't you tell us about this before?"

Ranma spoke up next, starting off reluctantly. "Because there's a pretty high cost for these things… If we find one, it means we can't return the heart crystal of whoever it was taken from."

"But… if the heart crystals aren't returned, the people will die, won't they?" Minako asked, her face going pale. As she said that, Usagi seemed to come to the same realization.

At Ranma's slow nod, the odangoed blonde spoke up. "That's horrible!"

"Yeah." Haruka replied. "That's what we thought, but we really have no choice."

"There's always a choice that doesn't involve sacrificing an innocent life!" Usagi said, her voice getting louder as she almost seemed to be truly angry, a very unusual thing for her to be.

Ranma shook her head sadly. "Look, we're lookin for a way ta streamline the process so we don't have ta have the crystal outside the person's body first, and for ways ta keep someone alive without one…" She shook her head. "But until then, we really don't got a choice."

"We… we'll have to stop you from doing that, you know that." Usagi replied, her eyes showing the slightest glimmerings of tears. This explanation had rapidly tilted out of control, and in a way that both Ranma and Haruka had pretty well seen coming.

"Yeah, we know." The blonde said, raising a hand to keep Ranma from talking. "But there's one thing you should consider."

"Wh… what?" Usagi asked, surprised.

"We don't want people to die any more than you do, and when the crystal isn't the one we need, we're going to be just as determined to get it back to its rightful owner as the rest of the Senshi are." She shrugged. "I know it's not much of a consolation, but at least most of our goals line up."

"But…" Minako said, confused.

"Look." Ranma chipped in. "When we find what we need, we understand yer gunna try ta stop us. Unless we were able ta show ya what we saw, we couldn't expect anythin less." She shrugged. "'till then, though, we'll help ya put down the Daimons, and all we want is about five seconds with each heart crystal."

Minako and Usagi just sat there for a moment, both visibly conflicted, before standing and walking towards the door. "We have to talk with the others." The Senshi of Venus explained.

The outers nodded in understanding, and then Haruka sighed. "I feel like a real ass, right about now." She muttered.

Ranma nodded in agreement, gazing off into the distance. "Yeah. Damn this whole 'destiny' and 'Senshi' thing." She muttered. As Haruka rested a hand on her shoulder, neither noticed the person who had been sitting several tables away, and had moved closer as she'd heard quite an interesting conversation.

HR.

Later that night, Kasumi Tendo lay in her bed, unable to get to sleep. She had heard things this afternoon that disturbed her deeply. She was having trouble piecing parts of it together, but it had something to do with Ranma, that Haruka girl he was with and Sailor Senshi.

What was worse, it apparently involved someone being put in serious danger or killed, and Ranma was the one who was considering doing it. It was just something she couldn't credit Ranma with thinking, at least not without a very good reason.

One thing that stuck out in the eldest Tendo's mind was the thing Haruka had said. "The rest of the Senshi." That generally lumped her into the group, and maybe Ranma, too. She hadn't been too much of a fan of the group, simply not being too interested in Nerima, but as she reviewed their appearances, she tried to match the faces and physical features to the two.

There were two blonde Senshi she knew of, Moon and Venus, but girls who looked remarkably like them had been sitting at the table with Ranma and Haruka when they had been talking. There was one who was very tall, like Haruka… Jupiter, she thought it was… As for Ranma, the thought of the macho martial artist in a short skirt and with a bunch of frilled bows all over her body almost made the eldest Tendo want to laugh, despite the seriousness of the conversation she had overheard. Even so, she ran Ranma's features through the list of physical features she knew about the Senshi.

As she got to the one she'd met at the Infinity Academy, her eyes widened. "Oh, my…" She muttered, shocked.

END.

Note: Well, there it was. Wow, Ranma and Haruka really have to work on the whole 'secret' part of secret identity, I think…

Also, Sorry the chapter was a little short. Truth to tell, it should have been part of chapter 43, really, but my pre-reader was going to have to sign off, and I didn't have time to finish it in one night, and that cliff hanger was just too much fun.

JRA: Hey, don't blame this on me!

Weebee(Shrugs): I'm not, I'm just explaining…

(A crushing sound is heard from nearby.)

Misato(Faint): GOT 'EM!

Shinji(Faint): Um, Misato, I think that was Ami's quarters…

Misato(Faint): Oops, wrong Mizuno… how about we just run now, Shin-chan?

(The odd sound of an EVA trying to sneak away.

Weebee: Ohkaaaay. Well, hope you didn't mind the shortness, and please R&R. Oh, and Mizuno Tenchi-san? Don't worry. She's safely locked in my head.

Ami(Faint):Wh… what happened to my quarters?

Weebee: Safe for you, anyways…


	45. Chapter 45, Studying the Dark

Another slightly too short chapter, but I'm hoping having three of these in three days is better than having one of my normal ones.

Anyhow, hope you enjoy, and please R&R.

Chapter 45, Studying the dark.

"So, they told us that they'd help us against the Daimons, but only if we let them study the heart crystals before we returned them," Minako said, as all five inner Senshi and the currently feline moon cats sat around the table in Rei's room, in an emergency meeting that had formerly been a study session.

"Right, but what if they find the one they're looking for?" Makoto objected, shaking her head. "I don't like this, why would Senshi do something like that?"

"They, at least, are obviously convinced that they're doing what they have to do," Ami contributed, frowning. Turning slightly, she noticed that Rei was being rather tight-lipped, her face noticibly pale. "Is there something wrong, Rei?" She asked, concerned.

The black haired Senshi shook her head, trying to clear it. "No, not really… it's just…" She said, unsure. "I may know why they're so determined." The next thing she said was almost missed by everyone, save for Usagi, who was sitting right next to her. "I hoped it was a nightmare."

"Well, if you know why they're doing this, spill." Minako said, leaning forward.

Rei nodded. "I've been having an odd dream lately," The fire priestess explained. "It's really, really bad. The world's been turned to stone, basically, and all of you are statues." She shuddered, not really wanting to remember what she'd seen. "Then, the sky goes black and this weird symbol is etched into it." She shrugged. "It felt like a vision, something the sacred fire would send me."

The group fell into an uncomfortable silence for a moment, before Luna broke it. "If the earth is headed for that large a disaster, then perhaps…" She started, before being interrupted by Usagi.

"No," The blonde girl said, softly. "We can't let anyone die. It's against everything we normally do."

"Then what do we do?" Makoto asked. "I mean, if we don't help them, it sounds like we'll be fighting them as well as the Daimons. I understand why you don't want them to take the heart crystals, I even agree, but let's face it, most of us aren't strong enough to go up against those two and the Daimon at the same time."

Usagi looked down, watching her hands as they opened and closed. "I… I don't know," She finally muttered.

"All right, then, why don't we do what we said we'd do earlier." Minako said, shrugging. Everyone looked at her, so she continued. "Neptune and Uranus were a huge help today, I mean, without them just Usagi and I couldn't have taken that Daimon. These things are strong --a lot stronger than the Droids-- and I don't know if we're going to get new abilities to handle them or not."

The other inners nodded, though Rei and Makoto did so reluctantly. "So, what are you getting at, Minako?" Artemis asked, knowing that his ward had a good tactical mind when she put her mind to it.

"Simple." Minako said. "We work with the new Senshi, stopping the Daimon attacks with them and hoping that they don't find what they're looking for any time soon." As Usagi was about to object, she continued. "…And, we study how they work, how they fight, so that when they do find it, we can beat them and make sure that people don't have to die."

"You're talking about us betraying them." Usagi breathed, shocked at the suggestion.

Minako nodded, but she didn't seem overly proud of her plan.

"I don't like the taste of it, but that does sound like the most logical course of action," Ami contributed, nodding as well." Makoto followed suit, and eventually, so did Rei.

"It… I guess it's the only way," Usagi said, sighing.

HR.

"All right, now you just hold your hands like this and concentrate," Soun Tendo said, as he and his youngest daughter stood in the middle of the Tendo Dojo. "Just like I showed you before."

Akane nodded, flexing her hands several times before a very blurred, reddish construct of energy formed between them. She tried to increase its solidity, but as she brought more concentration to bare on it, the shape pulsed once, and vanished into a cascade of sparks. "Argh!" She exclaimed, angrily.

"It's all right, that's a very high level technique. You did well to form it," Soun said

"Yeah, I know," Akane replied. "It's just that I'm supposed to be the master of our school now, and I'm not exactly impressive."

Her father smiled. "Don't worry about it, you're doing fine," He said, and truly meant it. It was odd how much things could change in one week. Before, he would have been a sobbing mess by now, and Akane would have stomped off in disgust, but now he was staying and truly seeing how much his daughter had progressed.

On one level, it made him extremely proud, but on another he was ashamed for not having helped her to get to where she was. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he looked her over and saw that the yellow headband she wore to keep sweat from running into her eyes was becoming drenched. "Akane, maybe we should take a break."

"No, I can get this, just give me some more time," She exclaimed, holding her hands out again.

Soun lay one hand on her shoulder. "You're going to fall over if you keep this pace up," He said. "Don't worry, I'll be here to train you after we get some lunch."

"Yeah… I guess you're right," Akane agreed, reluctantly. Turning away from her father, she saw her older sister leaning against the door frame, an odd expression visible on her face. "Hey, Nabiki, how long have you been here?"

"About ten minutes," The girl said, shrugging. "I wanted to tell you two that the permits have all been filed to restart the Dojo, just need your signature, Akane."

"Hey, that's great!" The younger sister exclaimed, as she and her father started for the door. "Thanks a lot, Nabiki."

The other girl shrugged. "It was good practice for the stuff I'll have to do later, don't worry about it." Then, she frowned. "Oh, and that reminds me of an idea I had."

"Oh?" Akane asked.

"Yeah, I think I've got your first student," Nabiki replied, leading the way into the house, and plopping down at the kitchen table. Seeing that the other two were waiting for her to continue, she finished. "Me."

Akane's blink was nearly audible as she started for the cupboard to mix up some instant noodles for lunch. "Excuse me?" She asked, almost starting to laugh.

"Look, I don't want to start jumping over roof tops or throwing fireballs," Nabiki said. "I just figured some extra self defense training couldn't hurt.." She shrugged, then looked away. "If you don't want me to, though…"

"No, that's not it at all!" Akane exclaimed. "You just never really showed any interest in the art." Then, it clicked in her mind. "You're volunteering to help me figure out how to teach, aren't you?"

"Hey, I never said that," Nabiki grumbled, now making a more serious effort not to meet her sister's eyes.

Akane smiled. "Well, no matter why you're doing it, Thanks." Nabiki didn't really respond, merely grumbling something about her image being ruined.

HR.

The next day, Ranma grumbled to himself as he walked down the hall, several books held under one arm. He'd ended up having to skip shop for some sort of exam preparatory test in math, and he wasn't exactly cheerful. Still, he had managed to finish the thing off, which meant he got to go to lunch twenty minutes early. This was a good thing as he was starving.

Unfortunately, while he'd been distracted by his thoughts, he'd found himself on the elevator and riding down to the floor where the shop class was located. Shrugging it off, he stepped out, knowing that there was a pretty decent lunch counter here from the time he'd bought Hotaru-chan lunch.

As he started down the hall, he heard a familiar voice call out to him. "Ranma-kun!" Turning, he saw Kasumi Tendo walking quickly down the hall, her hands full of a massive box of some sort.

"Kasumi?" He asked, heading towards her. "What's up?"

"Nothing, really," The oldest Tendo said, though she looked slightly nervous as she reached Ranma and he turned to walk next to her. "I just thought I would say hello when I saw you."

"But, I didn't think ya had any classes down this way," The pigtailed boy said, confused.

Kasumi didn't answer directly, only laughing slightly nervously. Then, after a second of thought, she spoke again. "I've got a Bento that I think I over-packed today. Would you like to share it?"

Ranma's previous question was blown completely out of the water by the thought of getting a hold of some of Kasumi's food, a thing he'd been missing very badly since leaving the Tendo home, so he nodded happily. "Sounds good," He said, starting to lead the way to a group of tables in the middle of this floor's common area. "So, how're you 'n the doc doin'?"

Kasumi smiled, this time more genuinely. "We're doing very well," She said. "It's amazing how differently he acts now."

Ranma just laughed, reaching a hand back to rub at the part of his spine that had been broken, or nearly so, by Tofu's Kasumi-induced antics several times in the past. "Yeah, amazing." He replied, then muttered "And good for my bones." Under his breath.

As they reached the table Ranma had singled out, Kasumi set down the box she was carrying, revealing the contents of two or three lunch boxes lined up side-by-side. Ranma looked at the thing, surprised. "Man, you weren't kiddin' when ya said you made too much."

Kasumi nodded, and then spoke as Ranma plucked a rice ball out of the box. "So, how has school been for the last week?"

Much to her surprise, Ranma chewed his food carefully before responding. "It's okay," He answered. "My music teacher's been makin' ominous threats, but other than that I think I'm doing a lot better than in Nerima."

"Threats?" Kasumi asked, curious.

"Yeah, on Monday she said somethin' 'bout putting me on stage at the school's next student concert." He shuddered.

"Wow, that's so nice!" Kasumi said, happily.

"Huh?" Ranma asked. "So yer in league with her?"

Kasumi looked confused. "What? No, I just thought it would be good for a lot of people to hear you play, especially since your teacher seems to think you're good enough." She studied him, pondering. "I really didn't know you played Violin when you lived at our house… Strange, since I was the one cleaning your room most of the time."

"Huh?" No, I didn't play it in Nerima," Ranma explained. "I started it here."

"Oh," Kasumi said, blinking in confusion. "Well, I'm sure your teacher had some reason to say that."

Ranma merely shrugged, before his eyes widened slightly. "Aw, damn it!" He exclaimed, shooting up from his seat.

"What is it?" Kasumi asked, worriedly.

Ranma didn't answer, just moving out from the table and proceeding to one hallway, where a sickly looking purple-black haired girl was standing. Studying her more closely, Kasumi saw that she had bruises on her face and arms. "Oh, no," She breathed, following Ranma to the girl.

"Hotaru!" The pigtailed boy called, as he got closer to the girl. "What happened?"

"Ranma-san?" The girl asked, surprised. "It… it's nothing, don't worry about it."

"Yeah, tell me another one," The boy said, his face contorting in anger. Kneeling down in front of the girl, he looked her over carefully. "Hmm, most o' this is just bruising," He muttered, as Kasumi came to stand behind him. "They get ya again?"

The girl nodded, and then looked down, but Ranma stopped her and lifted up one hand. "Hmm, there's blood here. You bleadin'?" He asked.

Hotaru shook her head.

"Ranma, what's happening here?" Kasumi asked, causing the pigtailed boy to look up at her.

"Oh, sorry Kasumi. This is Hotaru-chan. I met her a few weeks ago. Keeps getting beat up by her classmates," Ranma grumbled, glaring. "Hotaru, this is Kasumi, an old friend of mine."

"H… hello, Kasumi-san," The girl said, bowing, but Kasumi noticed that she winced as she did so.

Kasumi nodded. "Hello, Hotaru." She replied. "Ranma, let's get her back to our table, I've got some medical supplies."

Ranma smiled. "Figured ya would."

HR.

A few minutes later, Hotaru was sitting and munching semi-contentedly on a rice ball, while Kasumi looked her over. "Hmm, there are a few cuts," She said, quietly, "But not enough to cause the amount of blood she has on her hand."

"You got her bandaged up?" Ranma asked. At Kasumi's nod, he turned to the girl. "So, why'd they go after you this time?"

"He said I'd done something again," The girl said, quietly.

Ranma blinked. "Done something?" He asked.

"He… Our class pet died a few days ago. He… he said that he saw me break its neck." Hotaru said. At Kasumi's gasp of horror, She continued. "I… I don't remember doing it, but every once in a while I black out, there's times that I don't know what I've done for half an hour at a stretch, and I…" She looked down. "I didn't really do it, did I?" She asked, her eyes tearing up.

Ranma blinked. "Did you black out when he claimed you broke that girl's arm, too?" He asked. At Hotaru's short nod, he frowned. He'd originally discounted the boy's claims that Hotaru had done that, simply because a quick aura scan and physical examination proved that the girl couldn't possibly have the strength to break a bone, or even push someone particularly hard.

Looking straight at Hotaru, the pigtailed martial artist let his eyes glaze over, his aura sight studying her body intently. The training he'd undertaken with Cologne, while not yet allowing him to see clearly enough to view a heart crystal, had increased his general aura sight and pattern recognition skills dramatically.

"Wh… what's happening?" Hotaru asked, worriedly, as she noticed Ranma's disconcerting, fixed gaze.

"Don't worry, Hotaru-chan. He's just looking for something." Kasumi reassured, having seen Dr. Tofu do the same thing a few times before.

After about twenty seconds of silent contemplation, Ranma's face took on a look of shocked surprise, and his eyes flew open. "What? Is something wrong, Ranma-san?" Hotaru asked, concerned.

"No, nothing's wrong," The boy said, shaking his head. "But I think I might know what's causin' those blackouts of yers."

"Really?" Hotaru asked. "Do you know how to stop them? I… there was one earlier, before I left class, and…" She held up the hand that had formerly had bloody finger nails, before Kasumi had washed it off.

Ranma immediately frowned. "Yeah, it's possible, but I gotta bring ya to see someone first, 'n I'd understand if ya don't wanna go. I mean, ya don't really know me."

"No, please, I would do anything to stop those fits," The girl said, quickly.

Ranma gulped, very thankful that he, and his girl side, had been the first people to be nice to this kid, rather than some pervert somewhere. Her trusting nature was probably pretty easy to exploit, and could have even been the original cause of her problem.

Shooting a glance to Kasumi, Ranma saw her giving him a very odd look. He shrugged, trying to convey that he'd explain later, and the brown haired woman nodded, starting to make friendly conversation.

HR.

About five minutes later, Hotaru had left for her next class, and Kasumi and Ranma once more sat alone. "Ranma, what did you see in her aura?" The oldest Tendo asked, sounding concerned.

"I found a demon," Ranma said, completely seriously. At Kasumi's sharp gasp, he sighed. "There's something… else… other than her livin' in there. Not really sure what it is, but it's pretty strong."

"Are you sure?" Kasumi asked, though she had to privately admit that something like that was a far more palatable explanation than the nice, shy girl she'd just met being some sort of sociopath.

Ranma nodded. "I've fought a few of 'em before, ya know," He said, seriously.

"Yes, I know." Kasumi said, though she was certain that Ranma didn't know precisely how much she knew. "So, how can we help her?"

"There's a shrine 'round here and at least one of its keepers has real power. I'm hopin' they can help," Ranma explained, and then looked concernedly down the hall. "I just hope Hotaru doesn't do nothin' she won't be able to forgive herself for before we get the damned thing out of her."

Kasumi nodded. "I can go down to the nurses office and make sure that boy she was talking about is all right," She offered.

"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks Kasumi," Ranma said, smiling at her.

She smiled back, picking up her bento, which she was surprised to find still half full of food, and started walking off. It was only ten minutes later that she realized that all the distractions had made her completely forget to ask Ranma about the Senshi.

"Kasumi, are you all right?" One of Kasumi's teachers asked, walking up to her as she bashed her head off of a random locker.

"Oh, I'm fine, Sensei!" She said, regaining her usual cheerful attitude.

"If you're sure," He said, looking at her oddly, before shrugging and walking off.

END.

Misato: Just a warning. Weebee's about to vent. If you're allergic to drama, I'd stop reading here. This is something he's probably going to regret doing later, but meh, since when has he listened to my warnings?

Note: Well, the vote is in. Funny that I didn't ASK for a vote. The SG-1 element is shelved. I still need to use it for its original purpose, that is, explaining Ryoga's absence, but the mob has spoken, and like the spineless worm I apparently am, I caved. Cyde, don't worry, it's not your review alone that caused this

I had THOUGHT that me reassuring you guys that it would be a long time away would stop people from bugging me about it. Apparently, I was wrong. Oh, and FYI, that long time was going to be up until the great freeze. I needed a governmental agency to act in support of the Senshi, and I'd already put SG-1 in, so I was like "Why not?"

I'm rather disgusted with myself for caving like this. An author should write the story they want, only changing things on reviewer recommendation when they're obviously correct, and not just whining about an arc that hasn't even HAPPENED yet, but I never claimed to be a principled author, just an author.

I'm sorry. I know this note makes me sound like an ass. I just needed to vent. Now, I'd like everyone to shut up about this in any future reviews, because I don't want to hear about it again. Okay? Thank you.

Misato: Yeash, want me to call the wahmbulance?

Weebee: Just shut up, already.


	46. Chapter 46, Rivals

All right then! Chapter 46! I hope you guys enjoy it.

Chapter 46, Rivals.

Sailor Pluto studied the time gates worriedly. She would have cursed once more her inability to really use them, but that had gotten tiring over the years. As it was, she was presented with a problem. Her sense for the flow of time had told her that a large turning point had been reached and passed earlier that day, and she couldn't directly track it down.

All of the Senshi, including the ever annoying to track Ranma, had only done their normal routines, with the exception of Usagi actually passing a test, Ranma helping an injured girl during his lunch hour and Makoto stopping at that Peeking duck place for dinner.

Still, she knew that something was coming. It was something big, timeline altering, but she couldn't tell whether it would be for or against the Senshi. "Okay, I need a drink." She muttered, tired and annoyed from having just spent over 15 hours subjective staring into the gates of time. "Wonder if Nodoka will go with me?"

Shrugging the thought off, the green haired woman materialized her garnet staff and teleported out of the gate chamber.

HR.

"Hey, Ami." Ranma said, sitting down in the chair across from the blue haired girl.

"Hello, Ranma-san." The Senshi of Mercury replied, arranging her books in front of her and preparing for the study session. Looking around, she caught sight of the clock and noted that there were a few minutes before class. She contemplated opening her current book and starting to study, but stopped for a moment and looked over, considering Ranma.

Noticing her look, the pigtailed boy looked back, raising an eyebrow. "Somethin wrong?" He asked.

"Minako told the rest of us what you and Tenoh-san told her." Ami replied.

Ranma sighed. "Yeah, kinda figured as much." He muttered. "Look, you've been a real great help to me with studying, and everything, but if you don't like what we're doing, I'd understand if you wanted to stop."

"No, that's not it at all." Ami replied, quickly, now feeling slightly guilty about the plans the Senshi had discussed to stop the two new ones earlier in the week. "I just don't know why you are so convinced its necessary."

Ranma closed his eyes for a second, letting the vision that he had seen that day several weeks ago, the one that came back to him in dreams every few days, appear in his mind. As he did so, he could feel something else. It was almost like water running against his skin, but a part of his body he'd never felt before… and the waves were getting rougher.

"Ranma-san, are you all right?" Ami asked, worriedly, leaning towards him.

He snapped his eyes open. "Yeah, I'm… I'm fine." He answered, quickly. "As for why we're so determined… it's… not something I can explain in," he looked up at the clock, "two minutes."

Ami nodded. "At the meeting on Sunday then?" She offered, remembering that she was the one who was supposed to arrange contact with the Outer Senshi through Ranma.

The pigtailed boy blinked, then cursed softly. "Damn, I forgot!" He exclaimed. Seeing Ami's confused look, he shook his head. "Got somethin goin on Sunday mornin and I can't cancel it. Sorry." Seeing her frown, he went on. "I've gotta visit Rei's shrine on Monday for another reason, though. Can ya meet then after school?"

Ami actually smiled slightly. "Usagi won't like it, but I think we can." She said. She was about to ask him what had come up on Sunday, when the teacher stepped into the class, and she went quiet.

HR.

"Man, I can't believe it isn't here!" Ranma muttered, early on Sunday morning, as he tore his backpack apart for the third time in ten minutes. Still, however, the item he was looking for steadfastly refused to be found. Sighing, he stood up and headed out of his room, walking across the hall and knocking on Haruka's closed door.

The blonde opened it immediately, blinking at him. "Ranma?" She asked.

"You got a spare Kimono?" He asked, looking sheepish.

Haruka looked at him, oddly. "I thought you'd go as a guy? I mean, I certainly don't mind but it would probably make mom happier."

Ranma grimaced at her. "Do ya think any of yer Kimonos would fit my girl form?" He asked, levelly. "I figure you've got at least one men's one in there that could fit."

"Oh, right, sure." Haruka said. "Come on in."

He nodded, entering the room and noting that it was much more cluttered, as well as much neater, than his own. After a few minutes of rummaging around, the Blonde produced a men's cut Kimono, mostly dark green with some subdued black patterns on it.

"This could work, I think." She said, holding it up for his inspection, then smirked. "So, do I want to know why you don't have one?"

Ranma shrugged, slightly embarrassed. "It sorta got blown up."

She wanted to comment, but just shook her head, trying to hide a grin. "Try not to blow mine up, all right?"

"Hey, it wasn't my fault!" Ranma objected, indignantly, but then saw the woman's grin. "Oh, ya were tryin ta be funny."

Haruka nodded, and Ranma left the room in order to get changed.

HR.

Five minutes later, Ranma found himself standing in front of his mirror, trying to adjust the damned annoying garment to look right. It didn't have nearly as many adjustments as some of the female Kimonos he'd worn before, but that was actually part of the problem, as he kept thinking that it did.

Pulling the thing at least close to straight, he tested his movement, wincing as he realized it was just as constricted as he remembered. Glaring at his own reflection, he turned and headed out of the room, only to be stopped half way down the hall.

"Ranma!" Came Nodoka's sharp voice, causing him to turn around in surprise.

The older woman walked up to him, clucking in disapproval, and began fussing over his clothes, even moving where his pigtail was placed along his back. He wanted to squirm out of her grasp, but as she tweaked things, he saw that she was enjoying it, for some reason. It almost reminded him of her shopping trips with Ranko, so he just stood there, waiting for her to finish.

"There, you look a lot more presentable now. You should probably get your hands cleaned up a little, though." She said. "You and Haruka were sparring this morning, right?"

"Um yeah, thanks, Aunt Nodoka, I'll do that." Ranma said, smiling at her.

She responded with a bright smile of her own. "Don't worry, Ranma. I like helping you, remember that."

"Thanks…" He said, not sure what to say, as the older woman leaned down slightly and pecked him on the cheek. Watching her walk past him, he threw an odd glance at her back, but dismissed it and headed for the bathroom to wash his hands again, as she recommended.

HR.

40 minutes later, Ranma and Haruka were walking to the tea house where they were to meet her parents. They would have left later and taken her car, but unfortunately the vehicle was a total loss. Haruka had said something about its engine block having been cut in half, what ever that meant. He presumed that it was important, given the expression on her face when she'd said it.

Looking over at her, he saw a rather similar expression, though this time for different reasons. "I still can't believe that Aunt Nodoka and Setsuna got you to dress like that." He commented.

"Right, laugh it up." She said, annoyed, crossing her arms in front of her chest and being careful not to disturb the folds of her Kimono, or the polish on her nails. Those things, as well as the tasteful clip-on earrings, lightly styled hair, and small amount of make-up were taking her some time getting used to.

Ranma smirked. "C'mon, I got almost that prettied up for yer race last week."

"I know, but I think Nodoka-san takes a perverse pleasure in dressing me up." Haruka grumbled, causing Ranma to laugh. "And Setsuna-san's clothing collection…" She whistled. "It's scary."

"Hey, at least they were having fun." Ranma replied. "Setsuna's been way too serious lately, and Aunt Nodoka…" he trailed off, shaking his head.

"I know, you're worried about her." Haruka comforted, as the tea house came into sight. The two instantly took notice of Haruka's father's car parked out front. "So, are you ready for this?" She asked, knowing that this was the first time Ranma had ever had a formal get together with her family, and was pretty well an official acknowledgement of their engagement.

Ranma merely shrugged, not really answering, as they walked up to the door and entered. Looking around, Haruka saw her parents sitting at one corner of the rather crowded room, and pointed them out to Ranma.

He nodded, and the two headed over, Ranma stifling a sigh of relief as he saw that the settings weren't out for an actual tea ceremony. He'd never been terribly good at those, even the martial ones.

"Hello Haruka, Ranma." The blonde's father said, nodding to the two as they took seats across the table from him and his wife.

"Hi, dad." Haruka said, Ranma bowing slightly.

The group waited, looking each other over, for a few moments before the tea was brought by a server and placed in the middle of the table. After pouring cups for each of them, Haruka's mother spoke. "So, how is school going?"

Haruka exhaled a long sigh of relief, glad to get an easy question. "I'm doing well." She contributed. "Thinking of changing my major, though."

"And you, Ranma-kun?" The woman asked, turning towards the pigtailed boy.

He scratched the back of his neck nervously, and shrugged. "I'm doin all right." He answered.

"I… see." Haruka's mother replied, slightly put off, but determinedly started making other small talk anyways.

HR.

Within a few minutes, Ranma had relaxed a little, and the group was in slightly more fluid conversation. While the subject had started out with school, it had gradually drifted into the general aspects of living in Minato, and then while Haruka wasn't really paying attention, towards Ranma's previous life.

"So, you say you've always been a martial artist?" The girl's father asked, looking at Ranma and actually seeming curious.

He shrugged. "Yeah, ever since I could remember."

"Pardon me for saying so, but that doesn't seem like a career that could support you." The older man said, bluntly. His wife threw him a warning look, but Haruka just stayed silent, waiting for Ranma's response.

He nodded. "Sometimes, the art can't really support someone, but a lot o' the stuff ya can do with it can." Seeing that the older man was waiting for an explanation, he continued. "I'm good in construction 'cuz I can lift really heavy loads and balance pretty well anywhere, and some precision work 'cuz, well, if ya hit someone just a little too hard in the wrong place…" He shrugged, not having to finish the sentence.

Mr. Tenoh nodded. "So, your future plans are to be going into construction"

Haruka noticed her mother frowning at this, and wanted to interrupt, but she really didn't know what Ranma's future plans were. It had just been one of those things that didn't really seem to matter. Now that she was racing on and off through the months, she was bringing in enough that she could support both of them, if she had to.

Ranma shook his head. "Nah, at least not when I get outta school. I've got a Dojo I can help teach at, and if that falls through I can always fall back on the trainin I'm getting as a mechanic."

Haruka's father nodded, this time smiling slightly. "I'm sorry for putting you through these questions, Ranma."

"Don't worry 'bout it." Ranma replied. "Ya wanna protect yer daughter, and I get that." He smirked at Haruka. "Though soon she's gunna be good enough in the art not ta need protecting."

"Hey, who says I need protecting now?" The blonde asked, though she was grinning.

"Ask me again when I can't pin ya in twenty seconds if I want to." Ranma replied.

Haruka's parents looked to each other, both having noticed the relaxed way the two talked to each other, and the affection in their eyes. "Well, I certainly can't complain about free self defense training for my daughter." Mr. Tenoh said, chuckling.

"As long as it doesn't affect her studies." Her mother cut in, easily.

Haruka was raising her tea cup to her lips, not wanting to comment on that, when she heard the sound of the little tea shop's front door swinging open. A few seconds went by, and she heard someone stomp up behind her.

"You!" Came an angry roar, from just behind her that caused her and Ranma to both turn around.

"Oh…. Crap." Ranma moaned, looking up at the form in front of them. He was a black haired man, his hair tied out of his face by a yellow and black spotted bandanna. "Hey, Ryoga?"

"Hey Ryoga?" The boy growled. "How dare you say that to me?" Reaching forward, he grabbed Ranma by the collar, and picked him up. "Because of you, I have truly seen hell, Ranma Saotome!"

Haruka's eyes widened as the boy said that, remembering the name. Darting up and cursing her Kimono for hampering her leg movement, she hurried around the table. "Come on." She whispered, grabbing her parents.

"What?" Her mother exclaimed, confused. "Haruka, what are you doing?" She didn't answer, quickly herding them out of the immediate area of the two martial artists, then turning back towards them, worriedly.

Ranma had squirmed out of Ryoga's grip on the front of his Kimono, dropping to the ground from where he had been held several feet off of it. "Look, Ryoga, this ain't the place for us to fight."

"Oh no you don't!" Ryoga exclaimed. "You know about my sense of direction. I fight you now. No challenge dates, no new locations!" Saying this, the lost boy lashed out with a fist that just missed Ranma's head, as he ducked to the left.

"Damn it, Ryoga, this place is expensive and we're not in Nerima, plus, there are people here. I don't really wanna fight at all, but we fight somewhere else, or I stop ya by triggering your curse."

Ryoga stopped, dead. Ranma had NEVER used that threat against him. He knew that in his P-chan form, Ryoga couldn't fight, and he'd never taken advantage of that. "That's… dishonorable." He sputtered.

"Yeah, but no more so than lettin a tea house full of people get hurt 'cuz you wanted a fight." Ranma snapped back, instantly.

Behind the two talking martial artists, Haruka was explaining all she knew of the lost boy to her family, who weren't looking pleased. "So, the boy will not give up on this, I assume?" Her mother asked.

Haruka shook her head. "No, not from what I've heard about him."

"I don't like this." Her mother said, followed by a nod from her father. Oddly enough, just as they were about to continue, Ryoga's shoulders slumped, and they saw him nod.

Ranma walked towards them, the lost boy glued to his side. "Look, I'm sorry, but Ryoga 'n me have some stuff ta sort out." He heard Ryoga growl angrily, and continued hurriedly. "Haruka, I really didn't know this was gunna happen."

"You told me what I was getting into." Haruka answered, the off-hand statement shocking her parents.

"Thanks." Ranma said. "I'm real lucky I found ya."

"Would you stop the mushy stuff so we can go, already?" Ryoga demanded.

Ranma nodded, and the two started to leave the restaurant. Haruka immediately followed them, causing her parents to follow her in a rather odd procession down the street.

HR.

As they walked, Ranma looked back at Ryoga. "So, I'm pretty sure I can guess, but how'd I ruin yer life this time?"

"You told Akane!" Ryoga replied. "You promised you wouldn't tell her, you bastard."

"Yeah, and it was the dumbest promise I ever made." Ranma snapped back. "I kept it, covered for ya for over a year and a half when I shoulda just told her straight out."

Ryoga shook his head. "I… before you told her, I promised myself I would stop." He glared at his pigtailed enemy. "Then, of course, YOU had to blow it, and now she hates me forever."

"Didn't look like you were gunna stop to me." Ranma said, turning a corner and pointedly ignoring the group who he knew was following him.

"I got lost around the Dojo, and she found me!" Ryoga objected.

"Right, and somehow you never thought to dodge her or run like you always do when I try to pound on you." Ranma replied, sarcastically. "Ryoga, I had a chance to stop Akane from bein taken advantage of, and I used it."

"I… I would never do…" Ryoga growled, then narrowed his eyes. "How long until we get to where we're gunna fight?"

"It's a park, it's just up ahead." Ranma replied. "Now answer the question, if you were so determined you weren't gunna do it anymore, why'd I find her huggin you when I left?"

Ryoga tried to growl angrily again, but found the ability deserting him. "I… I was scared. I'd planned to go find Akari, to… p…. p… to tell her I wanted to stay with her." He shook his head. "Ranma, as hard as it is to believe, I don't stay as P-chan because I want to rub up against Akane's breasts."

Ranma snorted, but the lost boy ignored him. "Akane… she was the first person to ever be nice to me." He whispered. He ignored the voice in the back of his head that mentioned Ranma always walking him to school. "I needed…" He stopped, and shook his head. "I don't have to explain to you! We're going to fight!"

Ranma smiled slightly, realizing something. "That explains some stuff, but ya were still a lyin pig, and shoulda told her." He said, seriously.

"I know." Ryoga breathed, sadly. "Now shut up and fight!"

Ranma nodded, jumping away from the lost boy and into a green space that ran next to the sidewalk. "Come on, P-chan, show me what ya got!" He called, grinning.

Ryoga roared, withdrew his massive umbrella from his back, and charged. For once in the almost three months since he had last been in Akane's arms, the lost boy was… happy.

HR.

Every time, Haruka promised herself that she wouldn't let the next weird development surprise her. Every time, that promise was in vein. This time, the thing that was causing her faith in reality to waver was another fight between her Fiancé and a random martial artist.

She'd seen Akane fight Soun, and she'd seen Ranma fight Mousse. That had been small potatoes to this, a fight between Ranma and someone who just may be his equal. Beside her, her parents looked on in shock as Ranma leapt ten feet in the air easily, even confined by the Kimono he was wearing, dodging Ryoga's constant charges and faints.

At the same time, the few attacks the lost boy launched that hit the ground or a tree instead of his opponent left very visible property damage. "Is he going to be all right?" Her father asked, finally managing to overcome his shock enough to speak.

Haruka contemplated the question for a moment, and studied Ranma's face as he arced over Ryoga's head, landing a double spin kick into it that caused the other boy to hit the ground hard, rolling forward to regain his feet almost instantly.

Seeing the broad, almost manic, smile on Ranma's face she had to shake her head. "Oh, I think he'll be all right." She said, imagining herself tearing down a track at a truly ridiculous speed, the same type of manic grin glued to her own face.

HR.

The fight lasted almost ten minutes, though by some unspoken agreement of both parties, there were no Chi attacks or others of the like. It finally ended, surprisingly, when Ryoga got Ranma into an arm lock and managed to turn it into a very painful looking submission hold.

"Damn, looks like ya got me this time, pig boy." The pigtailed martial artist grunted, his arm shaking slightly where Ryoga was trying to rip it out of its socket.

"You're admitting defeat?" Ryoga asked, surprised.

"When has either of us admitted defeat?" Ranma asked, snorting. "I've just been getting soft 'round here. Next time I'll clean yer clock."

Ryoga pondered for a moment, and then nodded. "I guess I can make your life hell another day." He said, with a fanged grin, and then rolled off of his opponent, Ranma instantly springing to his feet.

"So, ya get all that outta yer system?" Ranma asked.

"Only because, for once in your life, you were right." Ryoga growled back. "I guarantee it won't happen again."

Ranma merely smirked, then looked at the lost boy evenly. "Hey, if you manage to get there, good luck with Akari, okay?"

Ryoga nodded. "Do… do you think Akane will…"

"No chance in hell." Ranma replied.

Ryoga sighed, lowering his head. "Yeah, I figured as much." Turning, he started to trudge off, and then looked back to his oldest rival for a moment. "…thanks, Ranma."

The pigtailed boy just shook his head, then called out, "And don't get too cocky! I'll beat ya down next time!"

Ryoga laughed, almost seeming to disappear into the distance a little too rapidly, and Ranma turned to see the small audience that had observed the fight. Scratching the back of his head, he walked up to them. "Erm, sorry 'bout that." He muttered, looking down. "Ryoga's kinda determined when he wants a fight."

"That's… fine Ranma-san." Haruka's mother said, clearly shaken by what she'd just seen. "May I ask something?" Ranma shrugged, so she continued. "Will… will Haruka eventually be able to do that?"

"Eventually, yeah. Probably take her twenty years or so." Ranma replied, shrugging, and throwing an apologetic look at the blonde.

"I… see." Her mother said, and fainted, being caught in her husband's arms.

"She gunna be all right?" Ranma asked, as Haruka hovered over her anxiously.

"I'm sure she'll be fine." The older man said, reassuringly.

"Ranma, that's the second time you made my mother faint." Haruka rebuked, but due to her father's reassurance she was more annoyed than anything else.

The martial artist shrugged, sheepishly. "Sorry…" He muttered.

Haruka didn't respond as she and Ranma helped her father carry her mother to their car.

HR.

Several minutes later, Ranma, Haruka and her father were standing outside of the older man's car, her mother carefully loaded into the back seat. "So, this was a real disaster." She muttered, sadly.

Ranma looked down a little, the good mood he'd exhibited earlier slightly dampened by that comment.

"I don't know about that." Haruka's father said. "…though it has told me that your life here will hardly be conventional."

Haruka blinked. "You're all right with this?"

Her father shook his head. "No, not really." He responded, evenly. "But I understand that you are, and if you're happy with it, and kept safe, I don't have any reason to complain." He smiled a little self-deprecatingly. "After all, we tried to make you conform to what we wanted once before, and you remember what that ended like."

Haruka found herself smiling. "Thanks, dad." She said, giving him a hug.

"Just be careful, all right?" He said, concerned, and then threw a glance at Ranma. "And if anything happens to her I'll have to kill you."

"Um, yeah, don't worry, Tenoh-san…" Ranma said. "If anything happens to her, I'll help."

The brown haired man nodded in satisfaction, then climbed behind the wheel of his car. Starting it up, he drove off down the street, causing Haruka to sigh in relief. "At least he didn't ask about my car."

Ranma stopped for a moment, looking at her in astonishment, then started to laugh as the two headed home.

END.

Note: First off, I'd like to apologize for the note last chapter. It was something that, indeed, I regretted later, but I feel that, unless it's in the chapter text where it will break the flow, any screw-ups I make should be left in, simply because they remind me not to do them again.

Having said that, I'm sorry to any of you I may have offended. I was annoyed, and, though it wasn't much of an excuse, I'm currently having some back issues that hurt like hell.

But i'm gunna shut up about that now.

So, how'd you like this chapter? Please, don't hesitate to tell me in a review!


	47. Chapter 47, Solutions

Chapter 47. A bit of an intermission chapter. Hope you don't mind. At any rate, here it is.

Chapter 47, Solutions.

Step forward, straight punch, quick jump to avoid a countering sweep, jump back, front kick, block low on landing, counter punch aimed at the stomach, "Nabiki?" The middle Tendo sister spun on one foot quickly, still trying to process the moves Akane had shown her earlier, and ended up falling flat onto her face as she was still off balance due to her outstretched arm.

"Ow." She said, simply, her face flat against the wood of the Dojo floor.

"I'm sorry, did I startle you?" Asked Kasumi's soft, concerned voice, as Nabiki heard her footsteps getting closer. If she didn't know better, she could have sworn her sister had had to hold back a chuckle before asking that.

"I'm fine, Kasumi." Nabiki said, pulling herself off of the ground and straightening to her feet with some effort, her muscles stiff from the long workout. "Didn't expect you here today."

"I needed to talk to you, and thought it would be nice to visit in person." Kasumi explained, calmly.

Nabiki's eyes narrowed slightly. "Has something gone wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong." Kasumi comforted. "Can we go into the main house? I'll make us some tea and we can talk." Nabiki nodded, following her sister inside.

As the two entered the living room, Kasumi looked back at her oddly. "Where are Akane and daddy?"

Nabiki grimaced. "They're off training." She explained. "Akane's thrown herself back into the art with more force than I thought possible, and daddy's going along with it."

"You don't seem to like that." Kasumi replied, noticing that her sister's expression had grown pensive during her last comment.

Nabiki shrugged. "I don't really mind it." She admitted. "It's just that she's taken a couple of weeks off school to get this sorted out already, and it's her last year before college."

Kasumi nodded, talking as she headed into the kitchen. "I noticed you haven't gone yet."

Nabiki shook her head slightly sadly. "Well, it seems that after I managed to pay your tuition off of him, Kuno-chan up and vanished." She shrugged, uncomfortable. "Now I've got to earn my own tuition the hard way."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know…" Kasumi said, sounding truly distressed.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Getting rid of Kuno as a crutch has actually made my money making activities a lot more challenging, and that's even a little enjoyable." Nabiki said then shrugged. "And if Akane and Daddy manage to open up the Dojo, we won't have money problems for long."

"Yes, I suppose." Kasumi said, reentering the living room with a warm kettle. Pointing at it, she gave Nabiki an odd look. "So, why was this on the stove?"

The younger sister shrugged. "You've been keeping one simmering ever since Ranma and his father showed up. Guess it's just part of Akane's routine in the kitchen, too." After waiting for Kasumi to set down the kettle, along with several glasses and a tea pot, she continued. "So, what's up sis? We could have just talked on the phone if you wanted to see how we were, and train fair here from Juuban's expensive."

"Kasumi thought for a moment, trying to put together what she wanted to ask, as she poured herself a cup of tea. "Nabiki…" She started. "You follow the Sailor Senshi, right?"

Nabiki winced, then looked around. "Yeah, I do." She said, sheepishly. "Just… don't advertise it, all right?"

"I'm sorry, but this is very important." Kasumi said. "Can you tell me what Senshi there are, if any new ones have shown up recently?"

"New ones?" Nabiki asked. "Well, there have been some rumors." Seeing that Kasumi wanted to continue, she narrowed her eyes. "Look, when it was stuff to help you out, I would never do this, but this is just random gossip, so you're going to have to give me something in return."

"Nabiki?!" Kasumi gasped. Seeing her sister's unyielding expression, she sighed. "What do you want? I already send you my paychecks, not that I mind helping my family, but I only keep enough to pay my board and for washing my clothes."

Nabiki winced, making a mental note to stop Kasumi from sending so much of her money in future. "I don't want money, I just want info. Why do you want to know about new Senshi?"

"Last week, while I was working, I heard Ranma and Haruka-san talking to two girls I'd seen around the arcade sometimes." Kasumi explained.

"You eavesdropped on people?" Nabiki asked, smirking evilly at her sister. "I never thought you had it in you, good going Kasumi!"

Kasumi blushed, looking away. "I… well, yes, I suppose I did eavesdrop.. but I heard them talking about Senshi, and some sort of crystals that would kill someone if they were removed, and artifacts…"

"Wait, slow down. Why not just tell me exactly what they said." Nabiki said, raising her hands in warding as Kasumi started to babble. As her older sister began to do so, her eyes widened slightly.

Once she was finished repeating what she had heard, Kasumi stopped talking and looked at Nabiki, concerned. "I don't know what's going on, but I'm worried about Ranma-kun getting involved in this."

Nabiki nodded, contemplating for a moment. "Just a second." She said, jumping up and racing out of the room. She returned a few minutes later with a shoebox, a neat label on the top reading "Fiscally irrelevant resources."

Kasumi blinked at the box, recognizing it as the stash of Senshi stuff Nabiki usually hid under her bed. Taking off the lid, the middle Tendo rummaged around inside and Kasumi noticed that her half page with Neptune's autograph was sealed into a little plastic bag on top.

"As for new Senshi," Nabiki said, sorting through the stuff quickly, "You know about the main team, right? Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and Tuxedo Mask. They've been around for a while, the newest one showing up maybe a year ago, so they can't be what we're looking for."

Kasumi nodded in agreement, watching as her sister separated over half of the pictures and papers quickly, marveling at how organized she even kept her hobbies. "So, who are there other than those six?" She asked, leaning forward to get a look.

"There's the pink haired kid, she's been seen around the Senshi a lot." Nabiki said, putting a picture down on the table. "She's obviously not who we want."

"Oh, she's such a cute little girl!" Kasumi squealed, having scooped up the image and studied it.

"A little too… pink… for my tastes." Nabiki shrugged, then produced another image. "Next, we've got Pluto. For a while everyone kept thinking this was just a slightly off-colored print of Mars, but we got a few others later, and it only makes sense that there'd be Senshi for the outer planets."

Kasumi nodded, studying the image and shaking her head. "I've never seen her." She admitted.

"Okay," Nabiki said, digging out a few more pictures, most of these a lot more blurry. One of the less blurred ones showed a blonde and a redhead, both in Senshi uniform, standing in the middle of a garage. The redhead was studying some form of glowing object she held in her hand. "Those," Nabiki explained, "are pictures of the two newest Senshi. No one's heard them introduce themselves yet, but they would have to be Saturn, Neptune, or Uranus."

"What about earth?" Kasumi asked, curiously.

"Most of us think Tuxedo Mask is the Senshi of Earth." Nabiki explained.

"Most of us?" Kasumi asked. "Who are the others?"

Nabiki shrugged. "Senshi fan club." At Kasumi's disbelieving expression, she blushed. "I use an alias, all right? Now, as I was saying, I have an autograph from Neptune, so which one of those two is she?"

"The red haired one, the one holding the glowing…" Kasumi said, then her eyes widened. "She's Ranma." She said, flatly.

Nabiki couldn't help it. She giggled. "She's what?" She asked, disbelieving. "Look, Kasumi, Ranma's done a lot of weird stuff before, but becoming a magical girl? I think he'd sooner jump nude into a pit of cats and Fiancées."

Kasumi shook her head. "No, that's definitely Ranma." She said, the certainty in her face surprising Nabiki. "Ranma is Sailor Neptune."

"What?" Came a startled new voice, causing Kasumi and Nabiki to turn, surprised. Standing in the doorway, and looking very shocked, was Akane. "But… I thought only Haruka was…" She snapped her mouth shut with an audible click, her hands flying up to cover it.

HR.

Five minutes later, all three Tendo sisters were sitting around the small table in the living room, and Akane had shamefacedly told her elder sisters the story about what had happened when Kodachi attacked her, including her later promise to keep things secret.

"Oh, if the others found out about this…" Nabiki said, trailing off as she saw both of her sisters throwing death glares at her. "What?"

"We aren't telling anyone." Akane said, flatly. "It was a stupid slip of the tongue that got me to admit what I knew about Haruka's secret, and I have to try and keep it contained."

"And with all of the dangers that attack Ranma already, do we really want to let it slip that we know he's…" She trailed off, finding it hard to get the odd idea through her head, "That he's a Senshi?"

"But I…" Nabiki exclaimed, only to get even looks from the other two at the table. "This is one of those times I'm going to have to sacrifice a lot of blackmail potential and money for the greater good, isn't it?"

Akane nodded. "Afraid so." She said, simply.

"Yeah, I thought so." Nabiki said, standing up.

"Where are you going?" Akane asked, suspiciously.

"I think I finally have the emotional motivation to break those bricks." Nabiki returned, leaving the room quietly. Akane and Kasumi waited in silence for a few minutes, before they heard a mighty "Kya!" and a crashing sound from the dojo.

Nabiki returned to the main room, her hands covered in brick dust, and her face looking much less like a mask than it had when she'd left. "That's better." She said, sighing. "But now I'm going to have to pay to repair the floor."

Akane looked over at Kasumi, blinking at her, then shrugged. "So… what do we do?" She finally asked.

Kasumi shook her head. "I really don't know, Akane. If there was something we could do to help the Senshi, I would say we tell them we know, but there isn't, really."

"But there is, I'm a martial artist. I could help them fight." Akane said, briefly entertaining fantasies of battling evil with some of the most famous heroes in the country.

"Akane, think about it for a minute." Nabiki chipped in. "If Ranma really is a Senshi, which I still find really hard to believe, it's pretty clear that his martial arts weren't enough to beat these things. I mean, I REALLY doubt he'd wear that outfit willingly unless he had to."

"Yeah, I suppose." Akane admitted, reluctantly. As the three were about to start talking about something else, they heard a knock on the front door. Jumping up, Kasumi hurried out to answer it, and was surprised to see Haruka and Ranma there, the latter in cursed form, and both carrying motorcycle helmets.

"Oh, hello!" She greeted.

"Hey, Kasumi. Didn't expect ta see you here today." Ranma said, smiling at her. "Came down ta make sure Akane's all right with the Dojo."

"Oh… of course." Kasumi said, seeming slightly nervous to the pigtailed redhead, but she just shrugged it off, stepping in past her and exchanging her shoes for house slippers.

When the three entered the living room, Akane and Nabiki stopped in the middle of a conversation, both looking mildly guilty. "Hey, Akane. What's up?" Ranma asked, waving at her.

"Nothing! I mean, there's nothing going on." Akane said, quite obviously nervous. Ranma didn't seem to pick up on it, but Haruka did, and gave the blue-black haired girl an odd look.

"I'll go into the kitchen and get some more cups for you." Kasumi said, leaving the living room quickly, as Ranma settled down next to Akane. "So, yer dad keepin his promise about helpin ya with the school? She asked, curiously.

"Yeah. He's out getting some new training equipment now." Akane explained, and then started to go into further detail on their plans for reopening the school, as Haruka sat down next to Ranma and started chatting with Nabiki.

HR.

"Hm, I think it's this way." Ryoga Hibiki mumbled, starting down a road that lead to a port town on the edge of the island. He'd walked out of Tokyo's city limits less than half an hour ago, after having spent far more time than he liked in the Tomobiki ward, and felt he was now well on his way to finding Akari.

It was odd, but ever since that last big jump that had landed him in front of the tea house, where he'd finally met and confronted Ranma, he hadn't been getting REALLY lost. At least, he hadn't left Japan yet... he hoped. Shaking that off, he hiked his backpack's straps up onto his shoulders again, starting to walk.

As he did so, he let himself think about what had happened that day. More specifically, his fight with Ranma. It hadn't been a full power, knock down drag out match, with all of their Chi attacks flying, but he didn't really regret that since Ranma's Hiryu Shoten Ha and inventive uses of his Moko-Takabisha were some of the most damnably annoying parts of fighting him.

No, what had confused him about that fight was that he'd beaten Ranma, and not broken every bone in his body afterwards. Before the failed wedding mess, he had been starting to forgive the pigtailed boy, and then he'd told Akane, and all of Ryoga's anger had returned at full force… or so he had thought.

Apparently, that thought hadn't been truth. When he'd fought Ranma, he hadn't become angry, just excited, for yet another chance to throw down with the one person who always kept up with him. The person who he was certain would have worked out an escape from the new precise hold he'd learned recently by the next time they fought.

"Damn you, Ranma! Because of you, I… am really confused." He exclaimed, his shout dieing down to a mutter near the end as he realized it didn't sound nearly as cool as "I've seen hell."

"Ah, so there you are!" Ryoga spun, expecting to see those angry Americans who had been stalking him, or a helpful townsperson willing to give him directions, or at least, anything other than what he saw. What he saw was a woman, her green tinted hair hanging down to her lower back, and wearing a costume that made him blush just to look at it.

"Erm, hello there." Ryoga said, with a nervous laugh. "You wanted to find me?"

The woman nodded. "Mr. Hibiki, you've caused me quite a bit of trouble." She said. "Do you know that you managed to break into an ancient chamber with more anti-intrusion wards around it than anywhere in this section of the galaxy? On top of that, you opened a security hole large enough to let a third party teleportation system piggyback on your signal."

Ryoga grimaced, wincing at the word Piggyback, but then shrugged his shoulders. "Um, no?" He offered.

"It was more of a rhetorical question." The woman said, and seeing that Ryoga was looking at her in a mixture of total confusion and slight worry, huffed exasperatedly. "I am here to offer you a deal, Mr. Hibiki."

"What kind of deal?" He asked, narrowing his eyes. His few interactions with Nabiki told him that making deals with pretty girls could be a dangerous thing.

"Don't worry, it won't cost you anything, I promise." The woman said. "All I need to do is ensure that you don't trespass at the gate of time again. It is my job as its guardian." Shrugging, she produced something small and crystalline and a piece of crisp white paper from apparently nowhere, handing them to him.

Ryoga frowned at the device, a tiny crystal key. "What is this?" He asked.

"It's called a Time Space key." The woman said, not mentioning that the time aspects of the device wouldn't work with her gate. "It is keyed so that when you enter the time gate, the gate's systems will lock onto you and teleport you somewhere else. Also, you can invoke it yourself with a set of magic words, so that it will teleport you to the gate, and then immediately to this other place."

Ryoga nodded, then narrowed his eyes. "So, where's the other place?"

"The Unryu pig farm." The woman said, casually.

Before she could blink, Ryoga had dashed over to her, and was giving her a crushing hug. Sailor Pluto winced, actually feeling the magical skin that covered her Senshi uniform compressing very slightly from the pressure he was exerting. "Mr. Hibiki, please let go." She said, pushing him back.

"Oh, erm, I'm sorry." Ryoga said, blushing slightly. "If this is true, then there is no way I can thank you for this enough." He said, and she could actually see tears gathering at the edges of his eyes. "Now I can finally go see Akari, and I'll always have a way to get back to her. It's… It's…"

Pluto shook her head, unable to keep a small smile off of her face. "I'm glad you accept the deal." She said, then paused for a moment. "Oh, and you do realize there's a group of American Military looking to talk to you, right?"

"Talk, yeah, you mean they want to shoot me, or cook me, or…" Ryoga muttered, frowning sourly.

Pluto shrugged. "Since you will be in one place more often now, you may wish to talk to them. They don't actually want to harm you."

He blinked. "You're sure?"

She simply nodded, then materialized a staff from nowhere. For a moment, he thought she was going to attack him with it, but then she just vanished.

Watching where the woman had been for a few moments, Ryoga shrugged, pulling the small piece of paper that had come with the crystal key out of a pocket he had stuck it in, and began to read.

"Guardian of time! Tear apart the sky and open the Door of Space-Time to me! I call your true name, the almighty god of time, the guardian of time's father, Chronos! Guidance to me! Protection to me! The path of light to me!" For a brief moment, the lost boy growled, thinking that he had just shouted a very stupid incantation with no cause, when a stream of white light engulfed him. Moments later, there was nothing on the path where he had been but wind and dust.

END.

Notes: First, before anyone asks, I have no idea if Pluto is descended from Chronos in canon or not. The incantation Ryoga used is taken directly from the series, originally used by Chibi-Usa. It could just be magical pattern recognition for the device, or it could mean something. I have no idea.

Now, for the fun stuff.

Omake! Omake! Omake! (This really happened, sort of.)

"As for new Senshi," Nabiki said, sorting through the stuff quickly, "You know about the main team, right? Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Tuxedo mask. They've been around for a while, the newest one showing up maybe a year ago, so they can't be what we're looking for."

Ami:Wait, hold on a second!

Weebee:What's wrong? You almost never interrupt a take.

Ami(Scowling):Aren't you forgetting something?

Weebee(Looks at the text.):Hmm... don't think so.

Ami(Very annoyed):Oh, so Sailor Mercury doesn't exist now, does she?

Weebee(Gulps)(Thinks):Wow, she's pissed.

Weebee:Um, woops?

Ami: Woops? 'Woops," he says.

(Ami grabs Weebee by the ear and starts pulling.)

Ami:I'll teach you to forget about Mercury.

Misato:Great, the lovebirds are fighting again.

Ami(Gives Misato a very, very cold look):What was that?

Misato(Nervous laugh):Nothing, nothing at all!

Weebee:Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow GOD that hurts!

(Weebee Is dragged off.)

Weebee(fading):Don't forget to OW! R&R...


	48. Chapter 48, Firefly

Chapter 48.... damn, my beginning notes suck now-a-days, don't they?

On with the show.

Chapter 48, Firefly.

Ranma winced as his music teacher called his name, just as he was preparing to leave the room on Monday afternoon. Turning back, his violin case slung over his shoulder, he saw her hurrying towards him. "Yeah, Sensei?" He asked, trying to conceal the impatience in his voice.

"Ranma-san, I wanted to ask you if you'd like to try out for a position in the school band." The woman asked, hurriedly.

"What?" Ranma asked, confused. "Look, um, I'm a little busy right now, I've got someone I gotta meet."

"That's fine, Ranma-san, I'd just like an answer so that I know if I should pencil you in for a tryout next week." The teacher said, easily.

"Yeah, um, sure. Whatever." Ranma replied, not really thinking, as he opened the door and hurried out. Knowing that he was eventually going to get into trouble for brushing the older woman off like that, he quickly walked down the hall, entering the elevator and pressing for a certain floor. When he'd offered to take Hotaru to Rei's shrine to be looked at on Friday, he hadn't thought much about the timing involved, and it had ended up so that he had to catch her exiting home room, on her way home, or he would have to wait until next Friday.

The latter wasn't even an option, as the little girl was currently harboring some sort of demonic entity, and any more delay than was absolutely necessary was a bad idea.

Stepping out on her floor, the pigtailed boy noticed the young girl standing at a locker, putting several small binders into it. "Hey, Hotaru-chan." He said, walking up to her.

"Ranma-kun?" She asked, looking up at him in surprise. "I didn't think you would actually be here."

Ranma pretended to look offended. "Hey! I always keep my promises when I can, ya know." He objected.

Hotaru nodded, smiling. "That's good. I called my father and told him that I was going to go somewhere with friends, so he won't be worried about me today." In truth, her father had sounded abrupt, busy with something else in his lab, when she'd explained that, but she had still gotten an agreement, so she didn't mind. "So, where do we have to go?"

"It's a place in Juuban." Ranma explained, starting to walk as Hotaru fell into step behind him. "Called the Hikawa shrine."

"A shrine?" The girl asked, surprised. "I thought you knew a special doctor, or something."

Ranma shook his head, then sighed. "Hotaru-chan, the thing that's causing your blackouts isn't somethin wrong with yer body." He stopped, considering for a moment. "At least, that's not the only problem."

Hotaru looked up at him, curiosity shining in her eyes. "What's really the matter?"

Ranma was about to answer, when the two heard someone calling his name. Turning, Ranma saw Haruka running towards them as they headed for the main entrance. "Hey, you're not going to leave without me, are you?" The blonde huffed, trying to catch her breath.

"Oh, hey Haruka." Ranma said. "You feeling all right?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just got out of gym, that's all." She responded, straightening up. Getting a look at the dark purple haired girl beside Ranma, her eyebrows rose. "Hmm, and who's this?" She asked, kneeling down to get a better look at her. "Pretty cute, you trying to replace your girlfriend?"

"Hey, Haruka, that ain't funny." Ranma scowled. "This is Hotaru, a friend of mine. Hotaru, this is Haruka, she's annoying."

Hotaru nodded, blushing slightly from Haruka's comment. "It's nice to meet you, Haruka-san." She offered, shyly, and then took a quick glance at the blonde. She'd heard Ranma call Haruka she, but Hotaru honestly couldn't tell from how she dressed. Still, she seemed pretty nice.

"So, where're we headed?" Haruka asked, falling into step with the two as they started for the door.

"Rei's shrine." Ranma replied, and the blonde nodded, then sent a confused look towards Hotaru.

"We're taking her?" She asked, and then when she noticed that the statement made the girl look uncomfortable, she continued. "Not that I really mind."

"I need ta show her ta Rei, and maybe her grandfather if things are really bad." Ranma explained, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Haruka.

"What, you think she's possessed?" The Senshi of Uranus asked, only to blink in shock at Ranma's slow nod. "You… really think she's possessed?"

This was quite a shock to Hotaru, as well, so she turned her head to hear Ranma's explanation. "Yeah." He said, frowning. "I scanned her aura last week. Didn't really want to reveal it to her like this, woulda rather gotten the damned thing outta her without her even knowing what it was." He stopped, favoring Hotaru with an apologetic expression, before continuing. "Whatever it is, it's pretty dark and has been absorbing the life energy she generates, maybe for years."

"A… a demon?" Hotaru stuttered, surprised. She wasn't the type to dismiss them out of hand, after all she DID live near the Juuban district, but the thought of one living inside of her was… disturbing, to say the least.

Unfortunately, Haruka's next sentence didn't decrease her unease any. "So you want Rei to try and get it out of her."

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, at least I'm hopin she can." He shuddered. "I've gotten hit by a demon once, but that little bastard was a small fry compared ta what I felt in Hotaru's aura." A second later, as he saw Hotaru wince, he groaned. "Damn, I wish I hadn't said that."

"N… no, it's all right, Ranma-kun." Hotaru said. "At least now I know why I was blacking out, and why everyone hated me so much." She looked down, and whispered to herself, "I… I really am a freak."

Ranma stopped, and crouched down in front of her. "Hey, you ain't a freak, just real unlucky." He said, looking into her eyes sternly. "Yer gunna be fine soon, okay?" Hotaru nodded, the words actually managing to cheer her up a little.

From behind the two, where she was watching, Haruka smirked. "So, good with kids too, hmm?" She muttered, fortunately too softly for Ranma to hear.

Several minutes later, the three had reached the high arch of a Shinto shrine's main gateway, at the bottom of a long flight of stairs. "Okay, so maybe I did take a wrong turn back there." Ranma muttered, referring to his attempt to turn onto a different street three blocks earlier.

"I told you." Haruka said, the smugness in her remark producing an irritated look as Ranma hopped the stairs in one jump. Smiling slightly to herself, she started to climb them more like a normal person, until she noticed that Hotaru wasn't with them.

Looking back, she saw that the girl was looking rather sweaty, and was only a quarter of the way up to where she was. "Wow, this walk really winded you, didn't it?" She asked, heading back down the stairs.

"I'm sorry, Haruka-san." The little girl gasped.

"Don't apologize, you should have told us." Haruka said, grabbing Hotaru around the waist and hoisting her up. The girl cried out in surprise, until she was rested on the older woman's back, with her arms around her neck. "Come on, and I'll get you up there." Haruka said, and then laughed. "Maybe I can convince Ranma it's my strength training for the week."

HR.

"Are you sure they said they'd be here?" Minako muttered, as she and the other Senshi waited in Rei's room for the arrival of the Outer Senshi.

"That's what Ranma told me." Ami said, nodding. "He said that he and Haruka were busy on Sunday with something they couldn't put off."

"Yeah, well I had very important ice cream eating to do." Usagi whined, pouting as she sat at the end of the table.

"I'm sure you could do without your afternoon snack for today, Usagi. It's probably good for you." Rei replied, teasingly smirking at the blonde.

As Usagi was about to go off about how mean Rei was being, Luna, in her human form because the outers were supposed to show up, raised one hand. "None of that for now please."

Usagi and Rei both nodded, before the group heard the sound of someone knocking on the shrine's front door. Rei was about to get up and answer it, when she heard her grandfather's shuffling footsteps. "Please tell me they aren't transformed this time." She muttered, causing Makoto to laugh. "It's not funny, that could have blown our identities wide open!"

"Sorry." Makoto said. "I was just imagining your grandfather's reactions to our Senshi Fuku." Rei didn't respond, merely grumbling incoherently, until she heard something she didn't expect.

"Rei, come here please, I need you!" Her grandfather very rarely ever called her with that high a level of urgency, and she responded immediately, shooting up and running to the front of the shrine building. Behind her, the other Senshi had stood as well, following her in concern.

As they entered the main entrance, they saw that Ranma and Haruka were indeed in their untransformed states, but there was a third person with them. She was a young girl, perhaps twelve years old at the oldest, and Rei's grandfather was studying her intently. "Hmm, this is serious." The man grunted. "The possession looks old, too."

All of the inners' eyes widened, and Minako immediately started making some hand signals to the others that they eventually understood as 'back off.'

Once they were out of easy hearing range of Rei's grandfather, the Senshi of love frowned at the rest of the team, save Rei who was being ordered to prepare the sacred fire room by the old priest.

"What is it, Minako?" Usagi asked, confused.

"This sounds like trouble, we should probably transform." The other blonde said. Ami and Makoto concurred, but as the others raised their transformation pens, Ami stopped them. "Not in the middle of the shrine!" She hissed, and the group quickly started to leave.

HR.

Ranma was surprised and rather impressed at Rei's grandfather's perception and professionalism as he conducted the pigtailed martial artist, Haruka and Hotaru into a large room in the center of the shrine. Rei was already waiting there, sitting in front of a massive flame in its middle that radiated spiritual power to such an extent that Ranma's Chi sense, normally untrained to pick up that particular variance of life energy, could feel it strongly.

The man had wanted to take Hotaru into the room alone, but at the girl's panicked reaction to the suggestion, the two older teens had insisted on going in with her. "So, do ya think you can help her?" The black haired boy asked, worriedly.

"I am not entirely sure." The old man admitted. "This demon is hiding its true self rather well. I can see the taint in her soul quite easily, but not how powerful it is." He glared at the two, causing them both to step back. "Which is why I wanted you out of the room." Sighing, he shook his head. "Well, at least now I have shrine assistants, of a sort, even if only one of you is female."

Haruka's eyebrow twitched and Ranma added some more respect for the old man. "Anythin we can do to help? I'm more inta Chi than true spiritual power, but…"

Rei's grandfather just shook his head. "Simply stand over there, and try not to make any noise. Rei, do you have the wards ready yet?"

"Yes, grandfather." Rei said, then produced a small bundle of papers from an aluminum box near the base of the fire.

Her grandfather nodded, and began to lay the paper wards around the room, muttering as he did so, while Ranma and Haruka just stood on the sidelines, watching nervously.

HR.

In the blackness, she stirred again. This time, not to satiate her boredom by lashing out at this puny reality, or to give orders to her Daimons. This time, she awoke because something had impinged on her senses. There was a threat outside of her mortal form.

Insinuating herself into the girl's senses, she slowly saw a large room taking shape. It was made of stone, mostly, and contained several humans. This confused her for a moment, until she detected that the room contained four pure heart crystals, two of them much closer than the other two.

Putting a minor suggestion into her host's head, Mistress 9 got her to raise her eyes from the stone floor, to face the being closest to her. It was then that she began to get angry. This being was laying small strips of paper on the ground, strips that resonated with powerful energy and that hurt her just to look at. What was happening?

As she thought this last, the old man finished placing the papers, and began to concentrate on her host. She could feel his human aura entering her body, as his voice rose in a chant whose words she didn't care to follow. This was an outrage! How dare this mortal human intrude into her host's soul? Then she realized. The fool was trying to expel her.

If she had had control of Hotaru's body at the moment, Mistress 9 would have laughed at the sheer absurdity of the thought of some random human pushing her from her place. As it was, it just annoyed her… until the pain began.

The foreign presence inside of her host seemed to be bolstered by something else, all of a sudden, and it was trying with all its might to tear her out. She struggled against it, noting with some satisfaction that the old man's face was starting to become slick with sweat, but it felt as though he was tearing her essence to pieces somehow.

She flailed around for a moment, and then, desperate, she reached out and grabbed control of her host's form. Normally, this was only done a few times in a month, as it was very energy consuming, but this was an emergency. Raising one delicate hand and growling in rage, Mistress 9 sent out a bolt of dark energy, meant to kill the foolish human who had dared attack her, to strip his heart crystal from his body.

The priest seemed to see the bolt coming, however, and it streaked past him as he threw himself to the side. Fortunately for her, the same could not be said of the human behind him, who crumpled to the ground as the bolt slammed square into her chest.

HR.

"No!" Ranma cried, shocked, as Haruka keeled forward, a bolt of dark energy that Hotaru had somehow cast having just slammed into her chest. As she fell, a glowing crystal flew from her back, hovering in mid-air where she had stood.

Ranma gasped, knowing what the crystal was, but not believing it. Reaching out for it, he watched in dawning horror as the crystal pulsed, grew, and solidified into an ornately decorated short sword, its hilt gold and its blade white, decorated with a gem stone in the middle of its length.

"The… that's…" He stuttered, disbelieving. He was snapped out of his shock, however, when the thing that had been Haruka's heart crystal flew from where it had been floating, and into Hotaru's hand half way across the room. Turning, he saw that the little girl was glowing with dark energy, and there was a malicious grin on her face.

She laughed, the sound sending chills down his spine, before stepping out of the circle of wards Rei's grandfather had made without even being slowed. "You fools!" She exclaimed, something seeming very, very off about her voice. "Now I have one of the Talisman, and it's all because of your meddling."

"I won't let you keep it." Ranma growled, reaching for his transformation pen, but he was stopped as the being that had been Hotaru swept the hand holding the sword, a crescent-like blade of energy sending him flying back into the wall.

"Now, for you!" She cried, turning towards Rei's grandfather, who had just managed to regain his feet from the dive that had kept him from having his heart crystal ripped out. "Do you know how much that hurt? It's time I paid you back!"

"Sparkling Wide Pressure!" Hotaru spun, not having time to dodge as a coruscating ball of electrical energy hit her square in the stomach, picking her up and sending her flying across the room. Scrambling up from the place she'd found herself on the floor, she glared back to see four Sailor Senshi, all looking battle ready, standing in the door to the sacred fire room.

She growled in annoyance, and just as Sailor Moon was about to make a speech, stepped back, seeming to be swallowed by the shadow of the wall. "What, where'd she go?" The odangoed blonde asked, looking around in confusion.

Mercury snapped her visor down and began working frantically on her computer to try and answer that question, while the other Senshi milled around uselessly.

Ranma, on the other hand, had managed to scramble back to his feet when Hotaru vanished, and quickly made his way over to Haruka. Rolling her over from where she'd fallen on her face, he saw that she was still breathing. "Haruka, can ya hear me?" He asked, looking down at her worriedly.

Her eyes flickered for a moment, then seemed to heave themselves open. "I.. yeah, I'll… be fine." She managed to say, but both of them knew that it wasn't true. They had both seen what happened to her heart crystal. "It… it was one of the Talisman, wasn't it?" She asked, softly.

"We don't know that!" Ranma snapped back, instantly. "It could just be something she can do with any heart crystal… it could…" At Haruka's level look, he nodded. "It felt like a talisman."

As he spoke, Moon, Jupiter and Venus gathered around him and Haruka, while Mercury continued to work frantically on her computer and Rei made sure her grandfather was all right.

"Good." Haruka said, causing Ranma's eyes to widen. Seeing the look, she smiled. "We're one step closer, but you… you have to get it back."

"I'll get it back." Ranma wispered, his eyes narrowing. "I promise you that."

Haruka didn't respond, only sighing once, before her eyes closed and she stopped moving. Ranma could still feel her pulse when he checked, but knew that her body would simply stop functioning within an hour from the loss of its heart crystal.

The pigtailed martial artist spent over a minute just looking down at Haruka's still form, several tears dropping from his tightly closed eyes, before he was jerked out of his mourning by the sharp beep of the Mercury computer.

Looking up, he saw Mercury looking slightly shamefaced, but also excited. "The computer's located the Daimon who took Haruka's heart crystal. Apparently she couldn't teleport far; she's only a few blocks away."

Ranma was up and looking into the Senshi of ice's eyes in an instant, and the intensity in his expression actually scared her a bit. "Where?" He demanded, his voice clipped.

Mercury didn't respond verbally, merely turning and pointing in the direction where her computer had detected the signal, and Ranma was off, actually smashing through the stone wall of the Shrine's main room as he left.

"Well, let's go." Sailor Moon said, startling the other Senshi, most of whom were pretty well shell shocked, into jumping about two feet. "We've got to go retrieve Haruka-san's heart crystal!"

"Yeah… right…" Jupiter said, shaking off her confusion and following her leader as she jumped through the hole Ranma had smashed in the wall. Mercury and Venus were next to go, but when Rei went to follow them, she looked back to her grandfather, realizing that he was still here, and very much aware of what was going on.

"Go, help your friends." He said, simply.

Rei would have been more startled if she had the time. For now, she just pulled her transformation pen out of her pocket, quickly changing into Sailor Mars and following the others.

HR.

Sailor Neptune leapt from building top to building top, following in the rough direction that Mercury had pointed out, her heart seeming tight in her chest and an immense rage burning behind her eyes.

This situation reminded her very much of the time she'd fought Saffron to save Akane's life, but this time there was one core difference. Haruka couldn't be saved, not now that her heart crystal was a talisman, and it had been Neptune's own actions that had brought this on them.

It was true, if she wanted to be rational, that this would have eventually had to happen at some point if they were to ever find the talisman, but she didn't care. 'Why couldn't it have been later, damn it!' she screamed within her head, what remained of her aura sense while she was a Senshi frantically searching out the thing that had been Hotaru.

She found it about ten blocks away from the Hikawa shrine, in the middle of a small empty lot. Letting herself skid to a halt on the roof of the building next to the lot, the Senshi of the sea cupped her hands in front of her body, taking aim. "Deep Submerge!" She cried, a large ball of water slamming into Hotaru's petite frame and sending it flying across the lot.

When the young girl got to her feet, looking none the worse for wear, Neptune's eyes narrowed. Hotaru shouldn't have been able to survive that. In fact, after she'd fired the blast she'd desperately wanted to call it back, since it would likely have crushed the girl to a pulp.

"Another of the Senshi?" The demon asked, snarling at her. Neptune didn't respond, leaping off of the roof and charging. Hotaru raised her sword, channeling power through the blade and sending it straight at the Senshi. Neptune neatly dodged the blasts, landing a kick to the girl's hand that sent the sword flying into the air.

Hotaru made a frantic dive for it, but Neptune saw it coming, scooping up the blade in one hand. "So, ya want this, huh?" She asked, angrily.

The demon growled at her, but Neptune could see that it was weakening as it stood there, now that the talisman it had apparently been drawing power from was out of its hands. "Ya know, I should kill you." She said, stepping forward, and grabbing Hotaru by the throat.

As if in answer, the blackness faded away from the girl's eyes, revealing the frantic, scared purple orbs of the innocent girl she knew. "Hotaru?" She asked, surprised.

"Why… what's happening?!" The girl gasped out, and Neptune released pressure on her neck, allowing her to sink to the ground. Stepping back, the Senshi glared at the scared, huddling being.

"Damn you… you coward!" She cried, knowing that she should kill the girl, if only because the demon was still there, and would be back. "Pathetic." Turning away, she started to leave as she saw the other Senshi landing on the roof she'd recently jumped down from.

Her danger sense warned her of what was about to happen, and she really should have seen it coming in advance. Even so, Neptune was only fast enough to turn around and look shocked as Hotaru's eyes turned dark again, her hand flashed out, and she found herself on the receiving end of the same attack that had felled Haruka.

She gasped as she felt something tear itself loose from her body, all of her Chi paths outlining themselves in fiery pain. Collapsing to her knees, she could see something glowing from behind her, and knew she'd failed… just as Sailor Venus dropped down and caught her, before she could hit the ground.

HR.

At the time gate, Sailor Pluto was calling herself ten different kinds of idiot. She should have seen this coming, even without her temporal foresight. Of course, maybe the fact that it was so obvious had been why she'd ended up missing it. Still, the fact remained that Neptune and Uranus were the talisman carriers, and she would have to deal with it. Raising her staff, she took a deep, calming breath before teleporting.

HR.

"Neptune, are you all right?" Sailor Venus asked, horrified.

"Get… the Talisman." The redhead gasped, her world starting to go hazy around the edges. "T… tell Usagi to bring them to Pluto."

Venus didn't comment, merely placing one of her newest teammates gently onto the ground and standing to her full height. Nearby, she noted that Jupiter and Mercury had both grabbed one of the two objects, one of which Neptune had been carrying and the other that had materialized out of her heart crystal.

In front of them, Sailor Moon was facing off against Hotaru, who looked like a normal little girl again. As she was getting ready to try and cast one of her healing spells on the girl, a new voice came out of nowhere. "Daimons, attack!"

Sailor Moon looked away from Hotaru for a moment, seeing that a bunch of garbage at the edge of the empty lot had started growing, reforming into two separate Daimons. She gulped. The Senshi had only ever fought a few of these things, never really winning without the help of the outers, who were now both incapacitated, and now they'd need to deal with two at once.

"Um, guys, I think we're in trouble." She muttered, turning back to ensure Hotaru hadn't moved. When she realized that the girl had disappeared, she actually found herself somewhat relieved, since they didn't have to worry about fighting her too.

"Gee, you think?" Came Sailor Mars's sarcastic voice, as she dropped in next to her friend, having just arrived.

"We have to get Neptune and Uranus's heart crystals back into them, maybe they can help us fight these things, and they'll die without them!" Moon exclaimed, but was met by a shake of the head from Venus and Mercury, who were kneeling near Neptune.

"We… don't know how to return them." Venus said, shamefaced. "They don't just fall back in like normal ones."

"Oh great…." Moon moaned, just as Mars shoved her to the ground, one of the garbage Daimons having finally decided to attack.

Only a minute later, the Senshi were finding themselves hard pressed. Much like the puzzle piece Daimon they'd fought at the old mansion, both of these new ones seemed to reform any time they were only partially destroyed, and the fact that there were two of them stopped Sailor Moon from using her Moon Spiral Heart Attack to destroy them.

Just as one of the beasts was about to cave Sailor Mercury's head in, a new combatant burst into the battle, with a whisper of "Dead scream."

The Daimon was knocked away from Mercury, and all of the Senshi took a moment to look over at the source of the attack. On the sidewalk in front of the vacant lot, Sailor Pluto stood with her time staff held in a defensive stance, her greenish black hair blowing behind her.

She didn't speak, merely removing the small red orb from the heart shaped end of her staff, and releasing it in mid-air. Seemingly in response, the two talisman tore themselves from Ami and Makoto's hands, forming the other two corners of a perfect triangle with the garnet orb.

Even the Daimons stopped for a minute to stare as the three were connected with beams of light, and the forms of the sailors of Neptune and Uranus faded into view behind their respective artifacts. Though they both looked confused, they reached out to grip the items by the handles, and a glow began to form in the center of the triangle.

When it faded, there was a strange red and gold cup, almost looking like some great sports trophy, floating in space there. "What… what's happening?" Sailor Moon gasped, as Pluto grabbed her Garnet Orb out of the air, re-attaching it to the top of her staff.

"Take the grail, princess." Pluto said, not quite willing to admit that she had no idea what was going on. Nearby, Neptune and Uranus looked at each other, having been released from whatever spell had held them before.

"You're… alive?" The redhead asked, her eyes tearing up slightly.

"Um, I hate to interrupt this scene," Sailor Jupiter grunted, as she interposed herself between the shocked outer Senshi and one of the Daimons, "But could we get a little help here?"

Uranus and Neptune looked at each other for a moment, before nodding. Their talisman faded into subspace almost instinctively as they jumped into battle, each firing their attacks to get one of the Daimons off of one of the Inner Senshi.

Meanwhile, Sailor Moon had walked up to the grail, reaching out and gripping it. Immediately, a new set of transformation words rushed into her head, and she raised the grail into the air. "Crisis, Make-up!" Almost immediately, her normal Sailor Moon uniform was replaced with a very similar one, only with two new hair ornaments, shoulder pads, and a white skirt with yellow and blue around the base.

She didn't take any time to admire her new appearance, starting to chant her attack as the other Senshi, now including Neptune, Uranus and Pluto, held the Daimons off for her. "Rainbow Moon Heartache!" She exclaimed as she unleashed an energy wave that reduced the Daimons back to the trash they had been constructed out of.

HR.

Five minutes later, seven Senshi were standing in the middle of a vacant lot, not really sure what had just happened. The two outers were standing together, while the inners stood around Super Sailor Moon. "Wow, that was pretty powerful!" Jupiter exclaimed, referring to Sailor Moon's last attack.

"Yeah." Neptune nodded, and then frowned. "But I hope that's not the only reason we need the grail." Seeing the others looking at her oddly, she shook her head. "It's just that with what's coming…" Noticing the cheerful looks on the Inners' faces, she dropped her train of thought for now. "It's not important."

"Hey, don't be so gloomy! We saved the day this time, didn't we! All's well that's great, after all!" Minako chirped.

"We should probably check with Sailor Pluto, though, just to be sure." Uranus contributed, smiling at Minako's mangled phrase.

"Hey, yeah, where did she go?" Makoto asked. "It's weird to see her show up at our fights at all, I mean I thought she was determined to guard the gate of time."

"Hotaru's gone, too." Neptune muttered, frowning. "Did anyone see where she went?"

"I think I saw someone grab her and run off, right after the Daimons showed up." Sailor Mercury offered, looking over to Moon for confirmation. Seeing that the odangoed girl was wavering on her feet, she laid a hand on her shoulder. "Sailor Moon, are you all right?" She asked, worriedly.

"Oh yeah, I'm just…" Sailor Moon started, before pitching forward, transforming back to Usagi in the process.

"Oh no!" The other inners gasped, clustering around her, as the outers looked on over their heads.

"Come on Usagi, are you all right? Jupiter asked, shaking the girl.

In response, she got a long, loud snore.

"She's asleep?!" Mars screamed, outraged. "Why you… making me worry about you, and then you, why I aughta….."

Everyone else laughed, watching Mars as she fumed. "Hmm, guess that new transformation takes it out of 'er." Neptune commented, smiling.

"I guess I can't blame her, though, I mean she did a pretty good job." Uranus said. "We can help you get her home, if you want."

"No, its fine, I'll get her woken up." Mars said, with an evil grin.

Uranus and Neptune nodded, and started to walk off.

"Um, where are you going?" Mercury asked.

"The battle's over, and we need to find Pluto." Neptune said, simply. The others were about to object, but didn't get a chance before the outers leapt away.

"You know… I really wish they'd stop doing that." Makoto muttered, irritated.

HR.

"So, why did you really want to go so fast?" Haruka asked, as she and Ranma walked down the street, heading for their home.

"What, was it that easy to tell I was lying?" The redhead asked, sheepishly.

"We've got Pluto's cell phone number, remember?" Haruka asked, smirking. "Now what's up?"

Ranma grimaced. "Sorta wanted ta be a guy when I talked about this," She muttered, but then shrugged. "Look… today, when yer heart crystal was taken out, I thought…" She stopped, looking down. "I thought ya were dead, 'n it really hurt."

Haruka didn't respond, waiting for the redhead to put words together in her own time. "It's like with Akane, only worse 'cuz I really thought I couldn't do nothin… 'n… I don't wanna lose you." She whispered.

Haruka moved closer, wrapping an arm around the smaller girl's shoulder. "Don't worry, you won't." She said, confidently.

"Yeah, like I didn't earlier? If it weren't for whatever the hell Pluto did, we'd both be dead." Ranma snapped. She tried to look away, but Haruka cupped her chin with one hand. "I… well, um," She stuttered, blushing. "How would ya feel 'bout actually settin a date for the wedding?" She asked, actually successful in looking down this time as Haruka had let go of her in shock.

"Wha…?" The blonde asked. She had definitely not expected this right now.

"If ya don't want to, it's fine, but I…" Ranma started, but was interrupted as Haruka grabbed her in a tight hug. When she looked up, surprised, she saw tears running down the blonde's face. "I'm sor…mph!" She said, interrupted by a deep kiss.

She was shocked for a moment, but then began to join in, and the two stood there, not caring who saw them embracing in the middle of a sidewalk. The kiss lasted a full thirty seconds, and when they pulled back, they were both out of breath.

"So…um… that's a yeah, then?" Ranma asked, her face dominated by a smile.

"Yes, you idiot." Haruka said, still crying slightly, but Ranma could also hear laughter in her voice. "Now let's get home."

Ranma nodded, and the two walked off into the streets of Tokyo.

END.

THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY! If I get comments like that, I will start screaming at my walls, and they've been abused far too much already.

Having said that, this IS the end of Contrast Match's second book, and my god, what a long sucker it was. Pushing through to this point was the entire reason my damned muses wouldn't let me sleep for the past WEEK, and now that it's here, I think I'm gunna burn out goodstyle for the next few days.

I'd prefer reviews of actual chapter content to having this question answered, but here's a question for all you reviewers out there. Should I split contrast Match up by book? The Book system is in place so that if, some day, god forbid, I screw up epicly, I can cut off the part of the fic I've screwed up on without having to delete the whole thing. It's sort of a quarantine system for the story arcs, so that they stand mostly alone.

Having said that, re-posting the first two books as their own fics would be damned annoying, especially the corrections I'd feel morally obligated to do, but would allow me to wipe any book that screwed up completely out of existance, rather than just deleting its chapters and trying again.

Having said all that, I think I'm gunna... I'm gunna.... I...

(Weebee's head hits the keyboard with a loud thwack)

Misato(Sigh):Damn it, I knew this would happen! Ami, why''d you have to give him all those stimulants?

Ami:Well, it got the chapters done, didn't it? And besides, now I get to go on vacation. Ja Ne!

Misato:Yeah, and now he's crashed! What if he goes into a coma like Asuka did? I'm telling you, it's boring watching those people, and it's probably WORSE being stuck in one's head!

Ami:Oh, don't worry about it. Remember, your vacation starts as soon as you get him to sickbay, too.

Misato(Growls):Well, my co-muse here may have just driven our 'beloved' author off the edge, but I HOPE we'll be back soon, so please review.

(Misato grabs Weebee by the collar, and starts dragging him off.)

Misato:Damn, you're heavy...


	49. Chapter 49: New Missions

Book 3: Family and Friends.

Note: Well, 3-4 months? It's alive! The new book has begun! You want to read it so I should shut up! And, AWAY!

Chapter 49, New Missions.

Rei Hino stood at the top of the steps that lead to her family's shrine, having parted ways with a recovered Usagi about twenty minutes earlier. Taking a deep breath, the shrine maiden stepped forward slowly, though her apprehension made it feel like she was walking through a cube of Jello. Today's battle had been hard to begin with, and then she'd remembered what had happened before it had started. Shaking her head, she forced herself forward. She'd known that, some day, she would have to tell her grandfather about who she was, she just really wished it wasn't today.

When she entered the front door, she saw the old man standing there, looking up at her expectantly. "Welcome home, Rei." He said, smiling. "How was your trip with your friends?"

Rei blinked, almost wanting to think that what she'd heard before had been some sort of hallucination. "We, um, got most of the stuff we wanted done." She said, uncertainly. That was… sort of the truth, though that demon possessed girl had escaped, not detected even after they'd had Ami scan the entire area for over five minutes.

"Good, then how about you help me with cleaning up the fire room?" Her elder asked. "It's important that we get the fire shielded before it rains."

Rei nodded, having not thought of that, especially given the gaping hole in the wall. Quickly following the old man, she saw that several bits of debris had been cleared away, and two moon cats were standing in one corner, bobbing from side to side nervously.

When Rei entered the room, the two looked as if they wanted to run up to her and ask questions, but they bit the impulse back, Luna simply meowing curiously. "Hey, you two? I thought you left with the others?" Rei asked, looking at the cats in the most confused way she could.

"They stayed and kept me company." Her grandfather remarked, grinning at the two advisers.

Rei gulped, but seeing that the priest wasn't going to push anything, she started helping clear debris. Finally, though, about a minute later, her apprehension got to her and she spoke up. "How long have you known?" She asked, softly.

The bald man looked over at her from where he'd been hanging a tarp across the hole Ranma had smashed in the wall, and then shook his head. "For over a year. Ever since that man with the black crystal attacked."

Rei gasped. "But… why didn't you say anything before now?" She asked, confused.

The old man shook his head. "Your group seemed to want to keep itself secret, and I was already providing all the help I could against those creatures by giving you a base of operations."

Rei was surprised, not really having expected her grandfather to give such a serious response. He was usually so fun loving and lecherous that she occasionally forgot that he truly was a good shrine keeper. "I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you." She mumbled, then continued slightly more firmly. "I was afraid to tell you in case you objected… If I had to choose between what you wanted and the Senshi, I'm not really sure what I'd pick."

She looked down at this admission and the two moon cats behind her slowly made their way out of the room, Luna in the lead, as they realized that this was a very personal moment.

When she felt a hand on her arm, Rei looked up to see her grandfather grinning at her. "Rei, what gave you the idea that I would stop you from doing this?" He asked, steadily. As her mouth gaped, he continued. "at this shrine, we have an obligation to defend normal people from threats of a spiritual nature, as well as helping with their religious well-being. I would never attempt to stop someone better equipped to do that than I am, even though I think you're a bit too young for this, yet."

Rei looked at the older man with dumb shock on her face, taken aback by the sincerity and seriousness of his words. "Really?" She asked.

He nodded, then grinned. "Plus, some of those friends of yours are so cute in their mini-skirts." Rei face-faulted, having known that her grandfather's bout with seriousness couldn't last forever.

HR.

In a park nearby, Neptune and Uranus both stood waiting for Sailor Pluto. Though the two had been happy to stand with each other in a sort of euphoria, a combination of their not having to kill anyone and finally deciding to set a date, on the way home they'd realized that there were other things that had to be looked after at the moment.

Haruka had called Sailor Pluto, who had agreed to meet them here and explain what had gone on. "I don't know of she's coming." Uranus said, concerned. Neptune was about to respond, when she abruptly flinched and kicked backwards.

Spinning, both Senshi saw Pluto on the ground about five feet away, shakily forcing herself to her feet. "I have to learn to stop doing that." She grumbled, spitting a small clump of dirt out of her mouth.

"Sorry." The Senshi of the sea muttered, sheepishly. "My danger sense is on a lot more of a hair trigger as a Senshi, since I can't use my chi to see who's behind me."

"It's fine." Pluto said, though she didn't look entirely pleased. "You two wanted to talk to me?"

"Yeah." Uranus said, irritably. "What on earth happened in that last battle? We had the Talisman, and apparently Moon was the one we had to give them to? And most importantly, though I'm really glad about this one, we're not dead."

Pluto nodded, and then materialized her key staff out of nowhere. Having been through this before, both of the other Senshi braced for a teleport, appearing in the gates of time. "I felt that it would be better if we had privacy." The guardian explained, stepping over to the device she guarded, and looking into the swirling patterns that made up its depths. This always seemed to help calm her down, even when she had annoyed other Senshi breathing down her neck.

Taking several moments to compose her thoughts, Pluto made a decision. "I haven't been telling you two the whole truth." She said, softly.

"Ya think?" Neptune snapped, before Uranus raised a hand to stop the redhead. She did quiet down, though reluctantly.

"I honestly didn't know about the talismans being in your bodies." The time guardian said, quickly. "Still, it should have been obvious, given that a Senshi could more likely survive the removal of their heart crystals, and the weapons were yours to begin with, but…" She trailed off, shaking her head. "My short-sighted panic isn't what I wasn't being totally truthful about."

Seeing the inquisitive looks on the other two Senshi's faces, the green haired woman continued. "I am the Guardian of the Gates of Time, which means that I should be able to see the future and past, as well as travel in time when the need arises. The problem is that I can't do this."

"Then… what was that vision you showed us, the destroyed planet?" Uranus asked, starting to become angry.

"That was the future," Pluto said, quickly, "or at least a very likely one. That's not what I meant that I can't do, or not really. I can't travel in time, and the gate's scrying powers are a lot weaker than they should be, so I had no idea where the talismans were, or how to get them." She looked down. "I knew that the world was very close to ending, in fact it still is, and I…" She trailed off for a moment, looking away from the other two, then continued more softly. "I panicked. By the time I realized what was really happening today, I was barely in time to complete the ritual to summon the grail before both of you died."

To the surprise of all three of the Senshi, it was Neptune who moved forward, resting a hand on Pluto's shoulder. "Hey, it's fine." She said, her expression understanding. "We succeeded, at least mostly, and we now got the talisman and that grail thing, right?"

Looking up in surprise, Pluto saw that Uranus was smiling at her as well. "I'm pretty sure we both know what it's like to grab for a solution when you can't think straight." The Senshi of wind said, understandingly.

Neptune nodded, remembering the fight with Saffron, and the snap decision that had caused the phoenix god's rebirth.

Pluto gaped for a moment, and then allowed a small smile to cross her lips. "Thank you." She said, and then cleared her throat, rubbing what she would later swear was a bit of dust from her eye.

For a few moments, the room fell silent, before Neptune spoke up. "So, um, what do we do next?"

Pluto straightened up, now much more business-like, and turned to the gates. "The situation's a lot better than it was, but there's still danger of the world ending. That demon you fought this afternoon was only the harbinger of something much, much more powerful, and it will try to obtain the grail, as well as more heart crystals."

"Wait, I thought we found everything in the heart crystals?" Uranus asked.

"We did, but the fact remains that they're pure, crystallized life-force. That is a large power source, which can be used to strengthen the enemy's forces."

"So, now we just gotta blow up the bad guys and return the crystals, rather than lookin at them for a talisman?" Neptune asked, sounding very happy about this prospect.

"We also need to try and find the source of the daimons," Pluto added.

"That's a plan I actually like." Neptune exclaimed, cracking her knuckles, and Uranus chuckled next to her.

Pluto nodded. "Good, I'm glad." She said, and then raised her staff again, causing the three to vanish from the Gate chamber.

HR.

When the three Sailor Senshi materialized on a rooftop near the Meiou house, Neptune staggered slightly. "I'm never gunna get used to that." She muttered, as Uranus steadied her.

Nearby, Pluto chuckled, thinking that this difficulty with teleporting, in some small way, made up for the fact that the other girl seemed to like kicking her across the pavement every time she appeared. "So, we'll talk to you when you have more information on the Daimons' creators?" Uranus asked, curiously.

Pluto frowned for a moment, then made another decision that she may regret in the morning. "Actually, I think I'll go home with you two." She replied.

Uranus and Neptune both exchanged confused glances, but shrugged. Pluto already knew both of their civilian identities, so they didn't really see the harm, as long as Nodoka and Setsuna weren't home. Jumping down from the roof into a back alley, the blonde and redhead both transformed back to normal, quickly, and surprisingly, followed by Pluto.

"Setsuna?" The two asked in unison, their blinks almost audible.

Setsuna Meiou snickered, straightening the top of her women's business suit. "Hello." She said, and then, for no real reason she could put her finger on, waved.

HR.

Sitting and staring at a campfire, Shampoo of the Joketsu Zoku grumbled to herself as she poked the large fish that was on a spit there. She didn't do so very loudly, as there was an elder and two warriors present, but there was definitely grumbling involved.

She had wanted to go with one of the hunting groups that were scouting out the rest of the island, to resume her search with the backing of the other amazons that had come with her, but the elder had vetoed that suggestion, stating that her group would return to Nerima and try to pick up Ranma's trail from there. Repeated exclamations that she'd already TRIED that, and that he'd said he was leaving the area, had fallen on deaf ears.

It was about now that the young Amazon started questioning the wisdom of her decision to go back home before finding Ranma, but it had been done, and they would be in Nerima in a week. She just hoped that no one in Nerima would get in their way. Shampoo really had nothing against the other girls, since Ranma had left them all in the end, but the elder, and likely the others, would think of them as obstacles from her reports and perhaps kill them.

Looking up into the stars, she hoped that this mission would be over soon, as her enthusiasm for it had been dimming steadily ever since she finally saw home again.

HR.

"You what?!" The cry of outrage pierced the Kuno household once again, as Sasuke Saragakure trembled in front of his mistress.

"I couldn't get any more information." The Ninja said, quickly. "There's another Ninja in the area working against me, for some reason."

"Hmm, then that would mean another powerful clan has interest in the region." Kodachi said, showing one of her few moments of lucidity. "They must want my Ranma-sama!"

Sasuke sighed.

"Come, Sasuke. You will tell me what district you found him in, and I will go there to rescue him from whoever is trying to capture him!" The house's only current resident exclaimed, bounding up from her chair and out of the room while spinning a ribbon she'd taken from… somewhere… around herself.

"I need a union." Sasuke grumbled, tiredly.

HR.

Hotaru's eyes shot open, images still running through her mind that she couldn't explain. The last thing she'd clearly remembered, Ranma and Haruka-san had taken her to see a priest of some sort. Then, things had started to become blurry. She'd seen flickers of what may have happened after that, but it all seemed so nightmarish that it couldn't be true.

She couldn't have blasted Haruka-san with some sort of energy bolt, and she definitely didn't want to remember the look on the face of the woman who'd tried to strangle her. Shuddering, the young girl got out of bed, padding out of her room.

The house was silent as she made her way down the hallway to the kitchen, as everyone seemed to be asleep. Entering the room, however, she saw Kaolinite sitting at the table, sipping coffee. "Hotaru-chan, I'm glad you're awake." The woman said, smiling at her.

Hotaru nodded, shuffling over to the sink and getting some water. "I had a bad dream, Kaolinite-san." She confessed, sheepishly.

Kaolinite frowned, looking worried. "Bad dream?" She asked, then moved over to look the girl up and down. "Hotaru-chan, do you remember what happened today?"

Hotaru gulped. "S… something did happen?" She asked, terrified that maybe her dream had been true.

Kaolinite looked at her sadly, and hugged her for a moment. "Hotaru-chan, you had a fainting spell when you were out with some friends." She explained. "They brought you home."

"Oh." Hotaru said, sighing in relief. "I hope Ranma and Haruka-san weren't angry."

"No, of course they weren't." Kaolinite said, reassuringly. "But your father's worried about you. He's decided that you should be home-schooled from now on."

Hotaru blinked. "He… why?" She asked.

"He's worried that you could be getting sick again." Kaolinite said. "I know you want to go to the academy, but it's too risky. You understand, right?"

"I…" Hotaru started, before the image of the enraged woman trying to kill her entered her mind again. "I.. guess I do." She finally muttered, turning and heading back to her room with her glass of water. "Good night, Kaolinite."

"Good night Hotaru-chan." The red haired woman said, smiling at the girl until she had left. Standing, she left as well, headed to the living room, and picking up the phone. "Hello?" She asked, after hitting a speed dial. After a few seconds of listening, she spoke. "I told her."

After some more conversation, she sighed. "Yeah, but she didn't look too happy about it." This time, after some more unusual comments, cackling could be heard. Sighing in annoyance, the redhead hung up, cursing idiotic employers.

END.

Not much to say today, so please R&R, and I hope you enjoyed the read.


	50. Please read first paragraph, Important

Okay, the reason I've placed this here is to inform everyone who's favorited or alerted this story that it has been picked up and continued. It's on the new crossovers page, but I know a lot of people don't check there too often. The author's name is shinokaze, and it's under the title "Contrast Match," obviously. I'm keeping this version up until he's fully finished posting to chapter 49, but fair warning to certain archivers I know, it's coming down after that.

Thank you, and I repeat to FFN, please don't ban me for this!

Old Note.

Hello. To start off with, this is not a chapter. I'm sorry for that, and I know perfectly well how FF.N feels about notes as chapters, but I felt that this needed to be written at some point, if only to tell people what's up.

To put it simply, I don't think I can continue writing this story. It's the longest I've ever done, and also very, VERY ambitious. There are six or more important subplots going at once, some of which have been running since chapter 1, and a combination of several of my bad habits means the longer the story goes the harder it is to keep things consistant and keep from forgetting a line totally.

By this point, it takes me more than a day to read the entire fic over, something I should, nominally do every chapter, especially on a fic this complex, and my propencity to avoiding note taking is keeping me from summing things up in a more easy to manage fashion.

I know there are several people out there who are screaming at me, verbally or mentally, while reading this but I had good reason to stop. I couldn't continue my normal method of tracking the plot, and I have no intention of spoiling what is, most likely, the best work I have ever written by continuing it sloppily.

If anyone wants to take this up, you're welcome, and you can consult with me if you'd like, but you don't need my permission. If you want to write a oneshot where Kodachi hacks the Senshi and Ranma into tiny pieces, and I happen to read it, I'll post a review saying "WTH?" and continue on my way, though a more... positive... continuation would be nicer, obviously.

I hope this doesn't make you guys want to kill me, as I'm truely sorry about having to do this myself. I enjoyed writing this story greatly, and your reviews telling me how I was doing and helping me improve were the best part, even if I did tend to snap sometimes under my own stress.

You guys put up with an eccentric author, with a horrible update schedule for years with only occasional complaints, and were always here to put in your two cents.

Wow, this final note's rambling, in'it?

I remember Chapter 48, and that long note at the end, "This is not the end! I will yell at anyone who asks if it is!" or something I'm too lazy to look up for an exact quote right now. Well, I guess I'm a rotten liar. I know volume 48 wasn't a very good end, and there's 49 just sorta... hanging off there, but it's all I got.

Nothing else to say, really, so 'bye, and hope you find something else to read.


End file.
